US to seek UN sanctions on ships taking North Korean coal to China

(Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it plans to call for U.N. sanctions against vessels identified as taking part in circumvention of United Nations resolutions to combat North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

The British-based Open Source Center issued a report on Wednesday saying that in the past year it had tracked a number of non-Korean flagged vessels transporting North Korean coal and iron ore to ports in China, in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, James Byrne, director of the Open Source Network, identified several vessels, including the Tanzanian-flagged Armani and Sophia, the falsely-flagged Cartier and Casio, and the unflagged Yi Li 1 and An Yu.

Byrne said the vessels had started engaging in sophisticated "spoofing" techniques, such as by presenting digital tracks to indicate they were in other countries, when satellite imagery showed them loading in North Korea.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Camille Shea said the Security Council would continue to highlight sanctions violations despite Russia's veto last year of the mandate of the panel of experts that monitored such violations on behalf of the U.N.'s 1718 Committee on North Korea.

"In the coming days, we plan to nominate for designation in the 1718 Committee vessels clearly identified in the briefing to which Mr. Byrne referred for violations of U.N. sanctions restrictions," she said.

Shea accused Russia of "cynically obstructing" sanctions implementation, including though importation of North Korean missiles and shells for use in its war in Ukraine.

She accused Chinese authorities of "looking the other way" as Chinese companies import North Korean coal and iron ore, even though Beijing insists it fully implements the U.N. resolutions.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy U.N. ambassador, said China rejected U.S. "accusations and smearing" and charged that Washington was using the North Korea issue as a pretext for strategic military deployments that jeopardized the security interests of regional countries, including China.

Russian U.N. ambassador Vasily Nebenzya dismissed criticism of its relationship and cooperation with North Korea, saying it was Moscow's sovereign right and that Russia was "very grateful to our Korean brothers for the assistance they've extended to us."

North Korea's U.N. ambassador Kim Song accused the United States of "high-handedness and arbitrariness" that should not be tolerated by the international community.

(Reporting by David Brunnstromm, editing by Deepa Babington)