Several North Korean ships bucked recent voyage trends in the new year, heading far outside of the limited number of routes they mostly stuck to last in 2018, the NK Pro ship tracker shows.

The DPRK vessels broadcast their locations apparently heading to, or returning from Vietnam, southeast China and Asia, though their points of origin or eventual destinations were sometimes unclear.

The North’s ships engaged in the unusual journeys are also tied to well known front companies known to have facilitated North Korean sanctions evasion in the past, or are themselves under U.S