A sanctioned North Korean-flagged ship carrying 6,500 tons of iron sank in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) last Saturday on May 22.

The DPRK-flagged Chong Bong sent a distress signal to Japan’s 8th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters due to “flooding of its freight storage” at 10:55 pm local time on May 21, according to Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato on Monday.

The freighter sank approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Dogojima island, Kato said during a press conference.

NK Pro confirmed with the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) on Monday that the Chong Bong sank at 2:32 pm local time on May 22, and that the 21 crew members aboard were rescued by the Yu Jong 2, another North Korea-flagged tanker in the area.

The Chong Bong was carrying 6,507 tons of iron when it sank, the JCG told NK Pro Monday. According to the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS), the ship broadcast an origin and destination from Tanchon on North Korea’s east coast to Songrim on its west coast, although it was last seen at the North Korean port of Chongjin on April 21.

Under sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) in 2017, North Korea is prohibited from supplying, selling and transferring iron to other states, and all member states are required to prohibit the supply, sale or transfer of iron to North Korea, barring some exceptions.

The Chong Bong is likely the same ship that has been under UNSC sanctions, as its International Maritime Organization (IMO) number matches the IMO — 8909575 — named in a 2016 sanctions resolution and reports.

And according to AIS data from NK Pro’s Ship Tracking tool, the Chong Bong went dark for about 2 years from Dec. 2016 to April 2019, with the exception of a single 2018 broadcast. It has been modestly active on AIS since then, despite its sanctions designation.

According to previous analysis by NK Pro, North Korean shipping activity has steadily increased since February following a long winter of very little activity on AIS. The freeze on North Korea’s fleet was likely due to various COVID-19 pandemic control policies that led North Korea’s overall trade volume to plummet in 2020.

AIS playback of the area in which the Chong Bong sank, from May 21-22. Times and dates are in UTC; MMSI numbers shown below ship names. | Image: MarineTraffic

It’s not yet clear why the Chong Bong sank over the weekend, the JCG told NK Pro on Monday. According to the AIS platform MarineTraffic, the Chong Bong appeared to have met with the Yu Jong 2 twice over a 14-hour period, at 12:00 UTC/21:00 JST on May 21 and at 02:00 UTC/11:00 JST on May 22.

The Yu Jong 2’s second meeting with the Chong Bong may have been to rescue its crew, after the latter’s distress call at 22:55 JST on May 21.

North Korean ships have a poor safety record, and they aren’t getting much better, according to a recent report by the Tokyo MoU, a multi-country port authority with purview over Northeast Asia. All 13 DPRK-flagged ships inspected by the authority in 2020 had deficiencies.

North Korea is also known to purchase aging ships sold for scrap purposes before pressing them into service.

Edited by Arius Derr. Oliver Jia contributed to this report.