In 2017, North Korea shocked the world by launching tests of two ballistic missiles able to cross the Pacific and strike the United States. One just missed hitting a commercial passenger flight that was headed for Tokyo.
The UN Security Council slapped a severe penalty on the rogue nation: a limit on the amount of fuel and crude oil it could import.
The hope was that, with no oil reserves of its own, North Korea would soon feel the pressure to change its ways.
Except... well, the sanctions did not work — two years later, the country conducted no fewer than 20 missile tests. What went wrong?
Demand
Meets
Supply
There is high demand for black market fuel from East Asia.
Price differences between nations make it profitable to buy low in one place and sell high in another — that is, if such can done without getting caught.
However, with oil traders operating in the shadows, it’s impossible to stop the trade... or even slow it down.
Or is it?
A British charity, the Royal United Services Institute, decided to try.
The Institute turned for help to Planet,a leading provider of satellite imagery
The Institute then worked with global security nonprofit C4ADS to review hundreds of images from Planet’s global archive.
That painstaking work identified at least 100 oil deliveries that North Korea failed to report to the UN.
Overall, the Institute estimated that North Korea imported four times more fuel in a single year than it should have stockpiled.
Dispelling
The Shadows
Planet operates about 200 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).Together, these satellites — every day — capture pictures and download images of the entire Earth’s landmass.
Those images proved key to uncovering smuggling in action. They revealed big tankers docked in East Asian nations where they legally bought fuel.
Out at sea, the ships that had just been fully loaded rendezvoused with smaller tankers and transferred the fuel to them for delivery to North Korean ports — in violation of the law.
Using Planet’s high-resolution images, the Institute was able to identify individual ships. News stories followed, bringing attention to the United Nations investigators — and North Korea found it harder and more expensive to smuggle its way to oil success.
Year by year, companies such as Planet are dispelling the shadows where illegal activity hides.
Day by day, satellites deliver a bit more of the Earth into the light.
Produced by Space & Satellite Professionals International. See more stories and videos of satellite making a better world at www.bettersatelliteworld.com.
