AUSTRALIA, CANADA TO JOIN SURVEILLANCE

>> TOKYO: Japan said yesterday Australia and Canada will join the multilateral effort to monitor North Korean attempts to evade UN Security Council sanctions resolutions through maritime smuggling operations.

The Foreign Ministry said the two countries will deploy patrol aircraft to the US Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture. They are expected to engage in monitoring and surveillance activities to prevent the ship-to-ship transfer of goods at sea by North Korea in waters around the Japanese archipelago and the Korean Peninsula as well as in the East China Sea.

“Japan welcomes these activities from the viewpoint of upholding maximum pressure on North Korea,” the ministry said.

The expansion of surveillance, already involving the United States and Japan, comes as North Korean l eader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held the first inter-Korean summit in over a decade Friday, agreeing to pursue “complete” denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

The British Royal Navy has already announced it will deploy its frigate Sutherland to waters around Japan to monitor maritime smuggling. The navy also held a joint military exercise with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force.

Security experts believe North Korea has been engaging in illicit activities at sea due to it being in dire need of fuel and other goods due to UN-led sanctions.

Japan has noted and reported to the United Nations multiple cases of suspected ship-to-ship goods transfers between North Korean and foreign-registered tankers in the East China Sea since January.