Since March 2024, Russia has likely delivered about 1.3 million barrels of oil to North Korea through the Vostochny seaport and its terminal in the Sea of Japan using 50 tankers. In addition, Russia exported at least another 322,000 barrels to North Korea by rail, according to a joint investigation by the Open Source Centre Project, Important Stories and the OCCRP.
The deliveries are made to bypass the UN sanctions imposed on the DPRK in 2017. The sanctions limit total exports of oil products to North Korea to 500,000 barrels per country per year. To circumvent the limit, Moscow and Pyongyang have set up several secret payment channels, including through the United Arab Emirates, and an MP from the Krasnodar region is linked to a company involved in this trade, the investigation said.
According to the Open Source Centre, North Korean tankers made more than 40 voyages to the Russian port of Vostochny in 2024. It is located in the Wrangel Bay of Nakhodka Bay in the Far East. In May of that year, Britain imposed sanctions on several Russian companies over what London called “arms-for-oil trade” with North Korea.
One of these companies was Fuel and Bunker Company (TBK), which operates in the Eastern Port and is based in the neighbouring city of Nakhodka. TBK does not disclose its owners. But according to its 2020 financial statements, the company was then owned by Cyprus-based Dolcestar Holdings Limited. Leaked TBK bank records obtained by Important Stories reveal its ties to Moscow-based fuel trading company” Southern Railway Expedition”(Yuzhny). One of the suppliers of petroleum products to Yuzhny is Slavyansk ECO from Krasnodar Krai. Its co-owner is Robert Paranyants, a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly and a member of the United Russia party, Segodnya notes.
In 2024″ YuZhe paid more than 240 million rubles to TBK – all the money transfers allegedly took place around the same time oil tankers were being sent from Vostochny to DPRK.
The Dossier Centre linked TBK to the family of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin in 2023.
Several Russian companies were allegedly involved in exporting fuel by railway. One of the largest exporters was Inrostopt, based in Vladivostok. Its main activity, according to official company records, is the sale of beer. The owner of Inrostopt-entrepreneur Natalia Bondar, who previously traded meat and vegetables.
Another company supplying oil to North Korea, Vladivostok-based Atlant Export, was registered in 2023. Last year, it accepted large sums – tens of millions of roubles – in cash into accounts at bank branches several times a month.
In March 2024, when oil shipments to North Korea began, Russia vetoed the continuation of an expert group at the UN that monitored compliance with sanctions against the DPRK. Russia’s alliance agreement with North Korea was signed in the summer of the same year, and since the autumn of 2024, North Korean soldiers have been involved in fighting against Ukraine. The DPRK also supplies Russia with ammunition.