North Korea is getting new ships
Many come from China, which continues to enable sanctions violations
Last Christmas Eve the Hui Yi was docked in Yantai, a Chinese port just across the Yellow Sea from the Korean peninsula. Then on January 2nd the Chinese cargo vessel switched off the transponder that reports its movements and disappeared. It was not seen again until early February, when it was spotted offloading cargo in Nampo, North Korea’s main port. A month later it had a new name, the Kum Gang 1, and was flying a North Korean flag.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Rusty buckets”
From the December 9th 2023 edition
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The Adani scandal takes the shine off Modi’s electoral success
The tycoon’s indictment clouds the prime minister’s prospects
Priyanka Gandhi: dynastic scion, and hope of India’s opposition
Poised to enter parliament, she may have bigger ambitions than that
The Caspian Sea is shrinking rapidly
This has big implications for Russia, which has come to rely on Central Asian ports
Racial tensions boil over in New Zealand
A controversial bill regarding Maori people punctures its relative harmony
Once a free-market pioneer, Sri Lanka takes a leap to the left
A new president with Marxist roots now dominates parliament too
The mystery of India’s female labour-force participation rate
A good news story? Maybe
