OH: North Korean coal smuggling reveals lax sanctions enforcement. “Shipments reportedly reach South Korea via Russia.”

Reports that North Korea illegally exported coal to South Korea via Russia — and Seoul’s initial lack of action — are raising new doubts about how effectively the international sanctions on the Kim Jong Un regime are being enforced.

The suspected smuggling formed part of the backdrop to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s call for vigilant sanctions enforcement at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

North Korea laundered the coal shipments, which began last summer, through the island of Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East, according to reports by a Security Council sanctions committee and other sources.

Ships carrying the coal left the port of Wonsan in the North and were unloaded at Kholmsk on Sakhalin. Non-North Korean ships then carried the coal to South Korean ports including Incheon, according to the reports. Coal has traditionally been one of North Korea’s most important income-producing exports.

If the South can’t get serious about it, the sanctions regime will never work.