The Korea Customs Service’s (KCS) admission that South Korean companies were importing smuggled North Korean coal and pig iron by sea made global headlines last week, even as recent history shows the country’s authorities turning an apparent blind eye to the kinds of loopholes in which the DPRK thrives.

The case highlights how North Korea’s well-honed sanctions evasion mechanisms remain one step ahead of Seoul’s regulatory agencies, whose interest in enforcing maritime sanctions often appears on a par with Beijing’s.

NK Pro and sister site NK News have been reporting