North Korea has consolidated ownership over its oil tanker fleet, analysis of the NK Pro vessel tracker and Equasis Maritime Databases shows, in a move that could signal increasing difficulties in registering its ships abroad.

The DPRK maintains a fleet of coastal oil tankers which shuttle between nearby terminals in neighboring China and Russia. Between them, the small tankers make regular trips and ferry oil products back to offloading facilities either in Nampho or along the DPRK’s eastern coast.

Previous NK Pro analysis showed that while some of the tankers were clearly North Korean