U.N. says North Korea in violation of sanctions

SEOUL, South Korea — Selling arms to rebels in Yemen, Libya and Sudan. Smuggling coal and oil from ship to ship in the middle of the ocean. Diplomats and ship captains carrying bulks of cash. Cyberattacks, including one involving more than 14,000 ATM withdrawals in 28 countries.

Those are just some of the increasingly brazen and sophisticated methods North Korea has used to skirt international sanctions designed to pressure the isolated country into giving up its nuclear program, according to a U.N. Security Council report released Tuesday.

The 378-page report comes on the heels of last month’s meeting between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, in which Kim sought unsuccessfully to get the sanctions lifted, making the case that they were hurting the livelihood of his people.

Trump said he wanted to “take off the sanctions so badly” but the concessions offered by North Korea just weren’t enough.

According to the U.N. report, North Korea has found plenty of workarounds.

Beginning in 2006, the U.N. has imposed several rounds of increasingly restrictive sanctions on North Korea as punishment for its nuclear program, cutting the nation off from the international financial system, banning key exports such as coal, iron and seafood and limiting imports of crude oil and petroleum products.