Suspected North Korea smuggling ships made repeated port calls in Japan

Vessels involved in North Korea's export of coal, which is banned by U.N. resolutions, have made repeated port calls in Japan, possibly as a way of evading the embargo, data obtained by Kyodo News showed Sunday.Such vessels have made over 100 port calls in Japan since the U.N. Security Council banned North Korean coal exports in August 2017 following a series of ballistic missile tests in violation of earlier resolutions, records from private firms that tracking shipping and the Japan Coast Guard showed.The vessels, many of which are Panamanian-flagged, visited Russia and China before or af…READ FULL ARTICLE