On October 10, the hulking, 460-foot (140 meter) cargo ship was banned from entering every single port across the globe, punished for violating sanctions on North Korea.
It was just south of South Korea the day the news was announced, the report says. Its transponder pinged continuously until 11:17 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time, the data showed.
Then the Hao Fan 6 disappeared.
The Hao Fan 6 was one of four ships the UN slapped with global port bans.
But it’s not the first time North Korean ships have been sanctioned. The Jie Shun, one of the four banned ships, was caught by Egyptian authorities smuggling thousands of North Korean rocket-propelled grenades in 2016. Panamanian authorities detained the Chon Chon Gang in 2013 after finding MiG fighter jets, anti-aircraft systems and explosives hidden under bags of sugar.
Now, the net seems to have widened. The UN has recently passed resolutions blocking North Korea’s ability to export goods like coal and metal ores — big moneymakers for Pyongyang, that help fund everything from the lavish lifestyles of North Korea’s elite to its rapidly advancing nuclear and missile programs.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson renewed the call after North Korea tested a long-range ballistic missile in late November. He said the international community needs to take additional measures against the country, “including the right to interdict maritime traffic transporting goods to and from the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).”
The US Treasury Department has gone even further than the UN, sanctioning 59 vessels for their dealings with North Korea. But independent North Korea watchers have identified as many as 180 ships connected to the hermit state, which begs the question: How many North Korean ships like the Hao Fan 6 are still roaming the high seas, bringing in cash for the Kim regime?
A ship crosses dry land
The Hao Fan 6’s journeys in the weeks before the ban show the massive ship, which can transport 8,343 tons of cargo, appearing to travel on land across large swaths of South Korea.
These aren’t errors. They’re clues.
Most modern vessels are tracked using an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder. The International Maritime Organization stipulates large ships must have one on board.
Turn it off and a ship can hide from prying eyes or potential threats. Once turned back on, tracking data will show a big and unusual jump.
“There is little that can be done to prevent captains independently switching them off,” Andrea Berger, a senior research associate who specializes in North Korea’s weapons programs and sanctions at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told CNN.
After going silent on October 10, the Hao Fan 6 didn’t turn on its transponder for the rest of the month.
Berger said it’s common for North Korean-linked vessels engaging in illegal behavior to turn off their transponders for periods of their voyage.
Experts say transponders are usually shut off if a ship is being threatened, often due to piracy.
One former owner
Trendy Sunshine took control of the Hao Fan 6 from a company called Zhejiang Haofan Shipping on February 24, 2017, Equasis records show.
That same day, Zhejiang Haofan Shipping transferred ownership of a different ship in its fleet, the Hao Fan 2, to a company called Advance Superstar (Hong Kong) Limited. Like Trendy Sunshine, Advance Superstar shares an address with a branch of SBC International.
Equasis records show Zhejiang Haofan currently owns only one ship: Hao Fan 3.
Like the Hao Fan 6, the Hao Fan 3’s AIS data shows it making massive jumps — it can be seen crossing land on South Korea and Japan, a sign its transponder was turned off.
Though the Hao Fan 2 and 3 have not been caught doing anything wrong and have not been sanctioned by the United Nations or United States, both ships have been turning off their AIS transponders and sailing in the same areas as the Hao Fan 6 — which Knight says is enough to warrant monitoring.
“You have the UN taking action against this vessel (the Hao Fan 6), saying that it’s been engaged in this unacceptable behavior on behalf of North Korea, and at the same time there are two other vessels controlled by the same people that are still active,” Knight said.
“You can show not only are they controlled by the same people but the people are not engaged in what appears to be normal commercial structures and normal activities,” she said.
CNN texted Griffiths at the United Nations if his team was aware of the Hao Fan 2 and 3’s potentially suspicious activity, but did not receive a reply.
Going in circles
More than a month after it went dark on October 10, the Hao Fan 6’s signal pinged in the East China Sea. It was hundreds of kilometers away from its last location.
Then it went in circles for more than two weeks.
This could be a way to distract investigators, according to Lopez, the former Panel of Experts member. He said he had not seen anything like this before, though the panel was not as focused on North Korean shipping when he was a member.
If the Hao Fan 6 tries to enter a law-abiding port, authorities would likely look at the ship manifest and route history before it requests to dock. Sketchy or incomplete traffic data would be a red flag, and the ship would likely run into problems with customs.
With nowhere to go, no port to call home and traveling with no apparent direction, the Hao Fan 6 now seems to be a drifter.
It’s still going in circles.
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Source: CNN
