NKHR publishes investigation linking record North Korean coal and mineral maritime trade to forced labor, military financing, and the collapse of international sanctions enforcement:

 “SAILING SANCTIONS” Minerals from North Korea’s Forced Labor Mines and Maritime Trade Expansion with China and Russia.

[Seoul, 30 June 2026] Satellite imagery of Nampo port shows North Korean waters busier than at any point on record. A year-long investigation by the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR), supported by expert maritime analysis from Data Desk (UK) and combining vessel-tracking analysis of 47 ships, has found that sanctioned North Korean vessels are now making more foreign port calls than at any point since before the pandemic. Based on testimony from 22 witnesses, the report reveals that the Ministry of National Defense has consolidated an almost total monopoly over North Korea's coal and mineral exports and is managing its profits through a financial architecture built entirely inside China that international sanctions have failed to reach.

Coal exports from North Korea are often produced by slave labor enforced by the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Public Security - the institutions responsible for the gravest human rights violations inside the country - but their export is controlled almost exclusively by enterprises affiliated with the Ministry of National Defense, which owns the transport infrastructure and commands the border and coastal zones through which smuggling occurs. The revenue does not pass through the international banking system. Instead, it is managed through secret accounts in Chinese banks, rendering the 2017 SWIFT exclusion of North Korea largely ineffective. Funds never need to enter North Korea: export proceeds and stolen wages earned by overseas forced laborers are all settled within China by representatives of each North Korean organ and spent on military imports and goods there.

The same sanctioned vessels supposed to have been grounded by international sanctions framework are now making more foreign port calls. The steepest increase is observed after Russia's 2024 veto of the UN Panel of Experts of 1718 Sanctions Committee, the body that was mandated to monitor North Korean sanctions violations. A Russian-operated pier at Rajin port in the DPRK's Special Economic Zone, operating supposedly under a sanctions exemption, appears in vessel-tracking records as a loading and offloading point for coal. Given that the Republic of Korea has not imposed a full ban on Russian coal imports since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the route raises serious concerns about North Korean minerals entering South Korean supply chains disguised as Russian in origin.

The Labor Behind the Coal

The report documents three overlapping populations whose forced labor produces these minerals. Unpaid soldiers assigned under military command to mine shafts mobilized for foreign currency earning needs due to increased needs for missile program and export of weapons. Political prisoners in camps built adjacent to major coalfields are mobilized under conditions documented as crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute. And the descendants of at least 50,000 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) remain classified as a hostile hereditary class, bonded to the same mines as ROK POWs after Korean War, with no right to leave. The revenue generated funds both weapons procurement and the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Public Security, the institutions directly responsible for the persecution of the North Korean population and the systematic deterioration of human rights inside the country.

The report also documents the export of other minerals produced under these conditions: iron ore, required for steel used in weapons production, and titanium, mined by soldiers assigned to organs responsible for the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program, are both linked to Chinese export with an observed uptick in trade from Chongjin port, primarily used for steel sheets exports.

The NKHR vessel database identifies 47 ships implicated in North Korean mineral trade - 27 already within the international sanctions framework and 20 not yet sanctioned - cross-verified using Global Fishing Watch AIS data and open-source ownership records including Baltic Shipping, Shipvault, Magic Port, and OpenSanctions.

The report is published at a moment of acute relevance: a May 2026 China-Russia agreement on expanded cooperation in transportation, logistics, fossil fuels, and banking with explicit mentions of border and maritime cooperation involving North Korea threatens to further entrench the trade corridors documented here, while Kim Jong Un's recent public commitment to modernize North Korea's coal mines and expand its nuclear weapons force signals that both the supply and the demand driving this system are set to grow.

"Behind every ship is a mine, and behind every mine is a slave with no justice and no way out. The military profits fuel an accelerating weapons program and the export of arms threatening the Korean Peninsula and the world. The only question is how long the world intends to let this continue," said Joanna Hosaniak, co-author of the report and deputy director of the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights

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The report is accompanied by satellite imagery provided by Airbus, vessel-tracking visual analysis provided by Global Fishing Watch, and a database of 47 ships that may be reproduced freely with credit to the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and Data Desk (UK).

Media Contact:  

Joanna Hosaniak  |  citizens.nkhr@gmail.com  |   +82 10-7140 -7429

Jiyoon Lee  |  j.lee@nkhr.or.kr  |  +82 10-9871-1244