BEIJING -- China on Friday denied violating United Nations-imposed limits on oil supplies to North Korea, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Beijing for allowing oil to reach the North.
Meanwhile South Korean officials revealed that they were holding a Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker believed to have transferred 600 tons of refined oil to a North Korean ship in October.
Beijing has "completely and strictly" complied with sanctions meant to discourage leader Kim Jong Un's government from pursuing nuclear and missile technology, said Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesman.
On Tuesday, a South Korean newspaper reported -- citing unidentified officials -- that ships believed to be Chinese transferred oil to North Korean vessels at sea some 30 times since October. Two days later, Trump said on Twitter that he was "very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!"
Trump has for months attempted to press China to tighten economic pressures on North Korea as part of global efforts to curb the North's nuclear and missile programs.
China is the economic lifeline for Kim's regime, and Beijing is under close international scrutiny for gaps in the U.N. sanctions. The sanctions allow limited supplies of oil, but they prohibit transfers of any goods to North Korean vessels at sea.
While also North Korea's main diplomatic protector, China has expressed growing frustration with its nuclear and missile tests. It supported the latest sanctions but argues against any steps that might harm the North's public or destabilize its government.
"China has been completely and strictly implementing Security Council resolutions and fulfilling our international obligations," Hua said at a regular news briefing. "We will never allow Chinese citizens and enterprises to engage in activities that violate Security Council resolutions."
Hua also said authorities had investigated reports, corroborated by the U.S., that a Chinese ship transferred oil to a North Korean ship at sea on Oct. 19 but that they concluded they were false.
Hua didn't identify the ship, but the South Koreans said it was the Hong Kong-flagged Lighthouse Winmore. There was no immediate evidence of official Chinese involvement in the Lighthouse Winmore's dealings with the North Koreans.
In November, the U.S. Treasury Department released satellite photos that showed what it said was a North Korean ship receiving oil from an unidentified vessel on Oct. 19. Those images received wider public attention this week when The Chosun Ilbo reprinted them to accompany the Tuesday report.
South Korean authorities said Friday that they had seized the ship believed to have transferred oil to a North Korean vessel on Oct. 19. Officials said they had impounded the 11,253-ton tanker, the Lighthouse Winmore, and questioned its crew.
The Lighthouse Winmore is believed to have transferred about 600 tons of refined petroleum products to the Sam Jong 2 after leaving the South Korean port of Yeosu, the South Korean government said. The ship was seized when it returned to Yeosu.
Hua said she had no information about the Hong Kong ship. But in response to a separate question about Trump's Thursday Twitter comments, Hua said "the relevant ship, since August, has never docked at Chinese ports, and there is no record showing it has left or entered Chinese ports. I am not aware of whether the ship has visited other countries' ports. So, the relevant report is not consistent with the fact."
The registered owner of the ship seized by South Korea is a Hong Kong company called Win More Shipping. The only director of that company is Gong Ruiqiang, who lives in Guangzhou, China, according to Hong Kong corporate filings. The ship was being leased by a Taiwanese company, South Korean Foreign Ministry officials told reporters Friday.
The Lighthouse Winmore docked at the port of Yeosu on Oct. 11 to load 14,039 tons of refined petroleum from Japan, they said. Four days later, it departed Yeosu, saying it was headed for Taiwan. Instead, it transferred the refined oil to four other ships in international waters, including 600 tons transferred to the North Korean ship Sam Jong 2 on Oct. 19, officials said.
A similar ship-to-ship transfer involving another North Korean ship, Rye Song Gang 1, was captured in satellite photos released by the U.S. Treasury Department on Nov. 21, although the department did not release the name of the other ship involved in the high-seas transaction.
South Korean authorities boarded the Lighthouse Winmore and questioned its crew members when they returned to Yeosu on Nov. 24. The ship was formally impounded by South Korea after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Dec. 22 requiring member countries to inspect and impound any vessel in their ports that was believed to have been used for prohibited activities with North Korea.
Under those sanctions, countries cannot export more than a half-million barrels of refined petroleum products, an 89 percent cut from previous annual shipments, and 4 million barrels of crude oil in total per year to North Korea. They are required to report their oil shipments to the North so that the Security Council can keep a real-time update of the aggregate amount and determine whether the caps have been reached.
The Security Council banned ship-to-ship transfers of oil on the high seas because they can be used as a loophole to avoid the sanctions.
The sanctions against North Korea were imposed by the U.N. Security Council as the North accelerated efforts to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. In recent months, the North conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and flight-tested intercontinental ballistic missiles three times, raising concerns that it's closer than ever toward gaining a military arsenal that can viably target the United States.
The Lighthouse Winmore remains in South Korean custody, officials said Friday. Its 25 crewmen -- 23 Chinese citizens and two men from Burma -- will be allowed to leave after the investigation is over.
Information for this article was contributed by Kim Tong-Hyung and other staff members of The Associated Press; by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times; and by Emily Rauhala of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/30/2017