The Russian military is using a naval base that formerly helped transfer nuclear fuel to facilitate alleged weapons trade with North Korea, NK Pro analysis shows, after the U.S. presented its most explicit evidence to date of DPRK arms sales for use in Ukraine.

The U.S. announced on Friday that North Korea had sent over 1,000 shipping containers of military equipment from its northeast port of Rason to the Russian seaport of Dunay, before they were then transferred by train to a facility near the Ukrainian border.

NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery helps fill in the gaps of Washington’s brief presentation on relevant cargo ship activity, showing that the cargo was initially processed in Dunay at a small but highly secure military port.

Imagery also shows that at least two other cargo ships were involved in transfers at Rason Port in addition to the one named by the U.S. and that this alleged weapons trade operation began in late August.

NK Pro was first to report  on the new two-way container shipping activity at Rason Port ahead of the U.S. announcement that the containers held “military equipment and munitions.”

North Korea is reportedly seeking “fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles” and “ballistic missile production equipment” from Russia in exchange.

NUCLEAR FUEL PORT

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby released aerial images on Friday showing hundreds of containers stacked at Rason (Rajin) Port for outgoing shipping, as well as a Russian cargo vessel called the M/V Angara docked at what was simply referred to as a port in Dunay, Russia.

Kirby said the Angara brought containers full of weapons and military equipment from Rason Port to Dunay before loading them onto trains for shipping cross country to the west near Ukraine.

He also said a ship was loaded there with containers “for delivery to North Korea” but did not disclose further information about it or the Dunay location. 

NK Pro has identified the alleged transfer location as a small military port in Dunay’s Konyushkova Bay. It features an extensive security perimeter that was used to unload spent nuclear fuel from nuclear-powered Russian vessels in the past.

A 2017 report from the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) described a process similar to what the U.S. said is now happening with weapons containers: “Spent fuel … was shipped to Konyushkovo Bay, where it was loaded into containers, transported to the ‘54 km’ site by truck, and brought the rest of the way to [a reprocessing] facility by train.”

The report doesn’t provide the location of the “54 km” train depot, but Planet Labs imagery shows a secure train depot around 2 miles (3 km) up the road from the secure port facility. This train depot became busier starting in late August, just as Russia started to use an area near the pier shown in the U.S. aerial image as a staging area for containers. 

This suggests that Russia moved the containers of military equipment by truck up to the train depot, but higher resolution imagery is needed to determine a stronger link to the operation alleged by the U.S.

The confirmed involvement of a military port used for sensitive shipping operations in the past appears to strengthen Washington’s argument that North Korea transferred weapons to Russia, even though it did not offer visual proof or details about where the containers came from in the DPRK.

The White House previously released imagery in January of cargo trains at the Russia-DPRK border with the claim they carried North Korean weapons, but without visual evidence of what was inside the train cars. 

SHIP NAMED BY U.S.

NK Pro has confirmed that a cargo ship matching the 126-meter length and structural appearance of the one called Angara (IMO 9179842) in the U.S. image, taken on Sept. 12 at the Dunay military port, traveled to Rason port on at least two occasions since August — an indicator that its participation in the alleged arms trade extends beyond the one instance described by the U.S..

The first was on Sept. 3, where it appeared in Planet Labs satellite imagery at Pier 2 of Rason Port, likely to pick up containers for outgoing shipping. 

The Angara may have been responsible for unloading the containers that showed up at Pier 1 (north pier) between Sept. 2 and 3, but available imagery does not show this activity.

NK Pro reporting on Rason Port shipping activities found that ships appear to be unloading containers at Pier 1 before moving directly south to Pier 2 to pick up North Korean containers. One of the new U.S. images also labels containers at Pier 2 as staged “for delivery to Russia.”

A ship matching the Angara’s profile also showed up at Rason’s Pier 1 on Oct. 2, after the vessel that the U.S. identified as the Angara appeared to stay at Dunay in Planet Labs imagery through Sept. 20.

The Angara did not broadcast its location using the standard automatic identification system (AIS) after Aug. 10.

The vessel belongs to Russian company M Leasing LLC, with its headquarters located in Moscow, International Maritime Organization (IMO) records show. 

The Spark-Interfax database states that the company was established in 2007 as a provider of financial leasing and subleasing services.

Meanwhile, Russia’s maritime registry states that the vessel’s port of registry is in Saint Petersburg.

M Leasing owns two ships, one of which appears to be the Angara, according to the IMO database.

IDENTIFYING THE SECOND SHIP

Another ship allegedly involved in the weapons operation appeared in the U.S. aerial image released Friday, but the White House did not name it or offer further details. The Sept. 12 image showed it docked next to the Angara and labeled as full of containers “for delivery to North Korea.”

NK Pro analysis shows that a ship of the same appearance unloaded containers at Pier 1 of Rason Port on Oct. 10 and picked up containers at Pier 2 on Oct. 11 and 12, appearing to provide further evidence that multiple ships were involved in weapons transfers between Rason and Dunay.

However, automatic identification system (AIS) data provides contradictory information about the specific identity of the vessel.

According to ship-tracking service Fleetmon, the Russian-flagged cargo vessel Vyacheslav Anisimov (IMO 9004463) broadcast its location from Dunay’s Konyushkovo Bay from Sept. 8 to 15 — matching the time period of the U.S. image.

Planet Labs medium-resolution imagery also showed a ship roughly matching the Vyacheslav Anisimov’s 113-meter length at the Dunay bay on Sept. 9, 13 and 15. Structural details seen in ground photos of the Vyacheslav Anisimov found on the website of its operator, the AZIA Shipping Company, Ltd., closely match the appearance of the ship in the U.S. image.

But AIS data provided by Fleetmon shows that the Anisimov went straight from Dunay to South Korea, rather than making a delivery to North Korea as the U.S. alleged on Friday. 

AIS data also shows the ship was in other places when one matching its appearance was seen in Planet Labs imagery in Rason.

This could mean that a ship with a similar size and structure to the Anisimov also visited Dunay to pick up containers since August and was the one in satellite images of Rason, and that the U.S. mislabeled the ship’s destination.

The AIS data for the Anisimov could have also been spoofed, as NK Pro has detailed before, given the sensitive nature of the activity in violation of U.N. sanctions.

A report by the Washington Post and the Royal United Services Institute has identified the ship that appeared in the U.S. image at Dunay as the Maria (IMO 8517839), which is also 113 meters long and operated by the AZIA Shipping Company, Ltd.

According to Fleetmon, the Anisimov broadcast AIS locations while loitering just down the coast in Vladivostok on Sept. 18 before passing North Korea on its way to arrive at the South Korean port of Ulsan on Sept. 25.

It stopped broadcasting while sailing over 100 kilometers east of North Korea’s Rason on Sept. 22, but only for around six hours before broadcasting again further down its route toward the southern ROK coast. The short period makes it unlikely that it detoured to Rason and completed container transfers.

Fleetmon also shows the ship sailing from Ulsan up past Japan’s Hokkaido and on to Sakhalin and Kamchatka between Oct. 7 and 16 — the same period as when a ship matching its description appeared in Rason from Oct. 10 to 12.

MORE SHIPS AND WHAT COMES NEXT

NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs imagery suggests there was at least a third cargo vessel, measuring around 120 meters long and similar in appearance to the Angara, at Rason Port’s Pier 1 on Oct. 6 and Pier 2 the following day. 

It has yet to be identified by name, and the lower resolution of available imagery taken of Dunay make it difficult to find dates when it was definitively at the Russian port. 

Planet Labs imagery shows that the container shipping operation at Rason continued since the U.S. presentation last week, with a new batch of hundreds of containers showing up at Pier 1 between Oct. 13 and 16. 

Further research is required to find possible container staging areas on the east coast on the route toward Rason as well as more specific information on who and what is involved in the alleged weapons trade.

It remains unknown where North Korea may be staging containers before they are sent to Rason, but the operation comes after leader Kim Jong Un visited several factories in August producing rockets and missiles that Russia reportedly seeks, including facilities on the east coast. 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and defense minister Sergei Shoigu also gave Kim tours of advanced weapons in the Far East in September.

Edited by Bryan Betts