Throughout the year, international ships and aircraft voyage out to Japan, some of which help monitor North Korea’s ongoing maritime smuggling situation. But overall United Nations deployments fell by about “two thirds” in 2020, a United Nations Command (UNC) official told NK Pro, and some of these partner military deployments are meant to watch North Korea.

These “sanctions missions” had been growing since 2017, but the global COVID-19 pandemic and consequential travel restrictions caused a significant “challenge” in 2020, according to Group Captain Adam Williams of the Royal Australian Air Force, who is the current commander of UNC-Rear.[/p