Updated Nov. 28 at 12:35 KST to include additional ownership details on the vessel provided by Equasis.

A Hong Kong company-owned, North Korean-flagged oil tanker was photographed earlier this month conducting what was suspected to be a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer in violation of UN sanctions, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) reported late Tuesday.

“Before dawn” on November 13, the Mu Bong 1 (IMO number: 8610461) “was lying alongside a small vessel of unknown nationality on the high seas (around 280km eastern offshore of Shanghai) in the East China Sea … [with] connected hoses,” according to the MOFA.

Due