North Korea Made $200m Defying Sanctions, UN Told

United Nations monitors have accused North Korea of continuing to supply weapons to Syria and Myanmar in defiance of international sanctions.

It claimed there was evidence that missile systems and rocket launchers had been exported in what the report calls ‘military co-operation’ between the countries.

The report states that despite being on a UN sanctions blacklist, more than 40 North Korean shipments to companies acting on behalf of the research centre for Syria’s chemical weapons programme were received from 2012 to 2017.

Myanmar's ambassador to the UN has denied that the country has no arms relationship with North Korea.

The UN security council report also says Pyongyang earned almost £150 million last year by exporting coal, iron and other banned goods.

According to the UN report, shipments of coal had been delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam in breach of sanctions using "a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics".

The expert panel accused North Korea of:

"Exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system".

Pyongyang is currently subject to tough sanctions, with the most recent UN sanctions estimated to reduce the nation’s petrol imports by up to 90%.