A Russian cargo ship has delivered hundreds of containers from North Korea to a Far East port for the first time in a month as part of a suspected arms trade operation, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery.

The Lady R (IMO: 9161003) picked up stacks of 20-foot (6-meter) shipping containers from North Korea’s Rason Port on Tuesday before arriving at Vostochny Port on Thursday with a deck full of cargo, Planet Labs imagery shows.

Most containers appeared gone from the deck on Friday, suggesting the cargo was unloaded for delivery inside Russia.

The Lady R has played a key role in the two countries’ alleged arms trade operation, suggesting the latest shipments were filled with DPRK military equipment in what could be the first arms shipment that Russia has received since mid-February.

Rason Port appeared to stop suspected weapons shipments from around Feb. 13 until March 10, raising the possibility of production issues in North Korea, though it remains possible deliveries were made by air or over a cross-border rail line during that time.

The Lady R is one of four Russian cargo ships that have picked up shipments from Rason since last August, along with the Angara, Maia-1 and Maria. All are sanctioned by the U.S. for connections to Russia’s military.

Circumstantial evidence suggested shipments from Rason at the start of the operation were military-related, since the port did not facilitate container cargo for years and because it appeared to only service Russian ships destined for a remote Far East naval port up the coast at Dunay. 

Dunay otherwise typically hosts warships and is not equipped to handle large cargo deliveries. This and the fact that the Russian ships have not broadcast their identity during deliveries suggests the two sides have tried to hide the operation while moving suspicious goods.

The U.S. claimed in October that the containers were filled with artillery shells and rockets for use in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, while satellite imagery showed that a buildup of the same kind of containers at outdoor weapons depots in western Russia coincided with the start of the shipments.

Weapons experts have concluded that Russia has indeed used North Korean rockets and short-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in recent months. U.N. sanctions prohibit the transfer of all weapons to and from North Korea.

By halting the use of Dunay in late December, it seems Moscow and Pyongyang have tried to create the appearance that the shipping operation out of Rason does not involve weapons.

Since then, the four Russian ships only appear to have delivered containers from Rason to Vostochny, a large commercial port with no obvious military use. This offers Russia plausible deniability to back up its rejection of accusations of arms dealing with North Korea.

The Lady R has also never appeared in available commercial satellite imagery at Dunay, but its involvement in the same operation out of Rason as the other three ships suggests it is moving the same kind of cargo.

The Maia-1 appeared to still be anchored in waters east of Vladivostok as of March 15, with the Maria in the same area as of March 13, according to Planet Labs imagery. The Angara is currently undergoing repairs at Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard in China.

Meanwhile, in another move possibly related to bilateral arms trade, a Russian cargo plane with experience transporting weapons made an unusual detour to Pyongyang on Monday evening on its way from Shanghai to Moscow.

Edited by Bryan Betts