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Report: North Korea imported large amounts of diamonds, wine, cosmetics

By Jennie Oh
The Friendship Bridge (L), in Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea, in Liaoning Province, on May 30, 2015. China remains North Korea's most important ally, providing Pyongyang with most of its food and energy supplies and comprises over sixty percent of its total trade volume. North Korea's economic dependence on China continues to grow due to international sanctions, as indicated by the significant trade imbalance between the two countries. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
The Friendship Bridge (L), in Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea, in Liaoning Province, on May 30, 2015. China remains North Korea's most important ally, providing Pyongyang with most of its food and energy supplies and comprises over sixty percent of its total trade volume. North Korea's economic dependence on China continues to grow due to international sanctions, as indicated by the significant trade imbalance between the two countries. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, March 19 (UPI) -- North Korea imported hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury goods last year, including diamonds, wine and cosmetics, while curbing major global sanctions on the regime.

A report by the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee released last week found the regime had imported nearly $515,000 worth of diamonds from India from January to June last year.

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$151,000 worth of sparkling wine and other spirits were shipped to the North from Germany.

The isolated state also imported Italian wine, Bulgarian perfume and cosmetics along with other luxury goods from Japan and Europe.

The products were sold in a department store in Pyongyang where members of the elite class shop, according to the 300-page report.

From January to September last year, the regime made some $200 million from illicit trading including coal, arms and other commodities it is prohibited from trading under U.N. sanctions.

Pyongyang curbed the international community's ban on coal exports through "deceptive navigation patterns, signals manipulation, trans-shipment and fraudulent documentation to obscure the origin of the coal," the report said.

The regime exported a total of $413.5 million in coal from January to September last year, exceeding its cap by $12.7 million.

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After a full ban on the regime's coal exports was enforced by Resolution 2371, North Korea is believed to have continued shipments to a handful of countries including China, Malaysia and Russia.

The report also found that the North had sold weapons including missiles as well as weapons technologies to countries including Syria and Mozambique in recent years.

The sanctions panel recommends enhanced measures to prohibit illegal trade activities including ship-to-ship transfers as well as targeting financial transactions and activities of North Korean entitities.

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