North Korea using sophisticated means to avoid UN sanctions – UN report

UN headquarters in New York. (Reuters)

North Korea has developed sophisticated counter measures to circumvent UN sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate the illegal trade in weapons, according to a United Nations report.

North Korean embassies in Cuba and Singapore were suspected by the eight member UN panel of experts of facilitating the country’s banned arms trade, including a shipment of fighter jets and missile parts that were seized in Panama last July.

The report also pointed to the use of more developed financial counter measures used to mask the purchase of both banned and permitted goods.