Follow the Money: Exposing Russian Financing of North Korean Oil Transfers

Russia’s renewed relationship with North Korea became a defining factor in how Moscow has sustained its war against Ukraine. In 2024, Russia provided North Korea with over a million barrels of oil, likely as part of a wider deal between the two countries. For the first time, Open Source Centre, in collaboration with iStories and OCCRP, reveals the architecture of this shadow trade and the Russian companies that helped fuel North Korea in violation of UN sanctions Moscow itself had voted for.

Drawing on high-resolution satellite imagery, advanced 3D modelling and geospatial intelligence and a range of Russian-language sources, this investigation traces the flow of funds through sanctioned Russian banks ultimately to the Vostochny terminal, where sanctioned North Korean tankers loaded oil. The trail winds through bank accounts in South Ossetia to sanctioned entities tied to the Russian Ministry of Defense, an obscure Russian oil trading company and eventually to a small Russian oil bunkering facility in the far east.

These financial conduits for sanctions evasion raise a broader concern: North Korea, still under extensive UN restrictions, has, with Russia’s help, found ways to reduce the pressure originally intended to to constrain its illicit activities.