Russia’s largest oil producer, state-controlled Rosneft, said on Thursday in response to a media report that it does not ship petroleum products to North Korea and does not do any business in the country. On Wednesday, the Yonhap news agency of South Korea reported that North Korea boosted its imports of refined oil products from Russia by 16 percent last year, despite the wide-ranging sanctions on Kim Jong-un’s regime. North Korea imported US$24.8 million worth of oil products from last year, Yonhap reported, citing research by international security research company Kharon, based on data from the International Trade Centre. According to Yonhap’s article, the Russian oil products supplied to North Korea were produced by the state energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom. The research cited by Yonhap found that North Korea imported US$26 million worth of fuel products from Rosneft between 2018 and 2019 and about US$100,000 from Gazprom in […]