Cambodian police have held a Chinese tanker over alleged ties to North Korean ship-to-ship transfers.
The Cambodian General Commissariat of Police said in a statement that the 3,900-dwt Courageous (built 1987) was detained on Sunday.
The ship and its crew of 16 were held for further investigations, NK News reported the police as saying.
The move comes against a background of a wider crackdown on North Korean-linked activity in the country.
A report by the government in February said that it had shut down all North Korean businesses and deported all North Korean workers to meet international sanctions requirements.
The Courageous had left Kaohsiung in Taiwan on 15 February, before anchoring in Cambodian waters 11 days later, the statement said.
It has now been taken to the port of Sihanoukville.
“The ship has been used to violate UN Security Council Resolutions 2375 and 2397 adopted September 2017,” the statement added.
The vessel is listed as flying the flag of Cameroon, but shows the flag of Cambodia in photos released by the Cambodian police
Between 2017 and last July it is listed by Equasis as being operated by Dutaryo Overseas Trading Corp, which could not be contacted.
It was then taken over by new owner New Eastern Shipping of China, which TradeWinds was also unable to contact.
The last listed port state control check dates from 2004. The vessel is classed by the International Register of Shipping.
