UN accuses North Korea of violating sanctions: report

United Nations monitors have accused North Korea of violating international sanctions placed on the country and earning almost $200 million in 2017 from banned exports, Reuters reported Friday.

A 213-page report obtained by the news service accuses North Korea of flouting bans on exports of North Korean coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, Reuters reports, as well as sanctions meant to hamper the country’s ballistic weapons program.

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“[North Korea] is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system,” the report reads.

An investigation also revealed “further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs,” it continues.

Kim Jong Un’s government may also be involved with the government of Syria, according to the report. One shipment from the country seized by an unnamed nation revealed acid-resistant tiles being exported from North Korea to the war-ravaged region, which could “be used to build bricks for the interior wall of a chemical factory,” according to the report.

The report suggests that North Korea may be helping Syria’s Bashar Assad maintain his country’s banned chemical weapons stockpile despite Syria’s agreement to destroy such weapons in 2013.

The news comes just weeks after President Trump accused Russia, another top ally of Syria, of helping North Korea make up for the economic damage caused by China’s newfound pressure on the country.

“Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump told Reuters in January. “What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing.”