维系朝鲜经济命脉的“隐秘船队”
联昇国际(Union Link International HK)只是一家管理着一小批货船的香港公司，却悬挂着一系列外籍旗帜，包括从中国、坦桑尼亚到太平洋岛国纽埃和帕劳的国旗。
But one stands out: a five-pointed red star on broad horizontal stripes of red and dark blue. It is North Korea’s national banner and the vessel that flies it, the Dolphin 26, is just one in a vast network helping Pyongyang survive the international sanctions that target its rapidly advancing weapons programme.
但有一面国旗引人注目：红色和深蓝横条纹上一颗红色的五角星。这是朝鲜的国旗，悬挂这面国旗的“Dolphin 26”号只是帮助朝鲜在国际制裁中生存下来的大规模网络中的一环(国际制裁针对的是朝鲜快速发展的武器计划)。
The UN Security Council on Monday passed its toughest measures yet against North Korea and reiterated an agreement to identify and inspect vessels suspected of transporting proscribed goods from the country. But the opacity of the web of ships, people and businesses perpetuating such trade flows suggests the international community faces a huge challenge if its clampdown is to succeed.
联合国安理会(UN Security Council)周一通过了迄今最为严厉的对朝制裁措施，并重申同意对涉嫌运输来自该国的禁运物资的船只进行识别和检查。但维持这种贸易流动的船只、人员和企业网络极不透明，这意味着如果国际社会想要成功实施禁运，将面临巨大挑战。
Hundreds of the vessels involved are owned and managed by companies based in Hong Kong, where it is not illegal to do business with North Korea. Some of the companies are operated by North Koreans, corporate records show, although most are backed by Chinese nationals.
其中涉及的数百艘船只由一些总部位于香港的公司所有和管理，在香港，与朝鲜做生意并不违法。公司注册信息显示，其中一些公司由朝鲜人经营，不过多数还是由中国公民经营。
“These networks have to be important to North Korea because the North Korean economy has been able to do something no Soviet economy was ever able to do before, and that’s stabilise the balance of trade and the currency,” says Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank.
保守派智库美国企业研究所(American Enterprise Institute)的尼古拉斯•埃伯施塔特(Nicholas Eberstadt)表示：“这些网络肯定对朝鲜很重要，因为朝鲜经济能够做到稳定贸易平衡和汇率，这件事从没有一个苏维埃经济体能够做到。”
Washington-based research group C4ADS has detailed the characteristics of shipping networks important to North Korea. Of a sample of the 248 companies it identifies as managing or operating businesses connected to North Korea, 160 are registered in Hong Kong.
总部位于华盛顿的研究机构C4ADS详细描述了这些对朝鲜非常重要的航运网络的特征。该机构选取了248家它认为管理或经营与朝鲜相关业务的公司，其中有160家在香港注册。
One C4ADS report notes that the companies employ “a variety of schemes to disguise beneficial ownership including using flags of convenience for ships, establishing shell and front companies to register their holdings . . . and using multiple layers of intermediaries to conduct business”.
C4ADS的一份报告指出，这些公司利用“多种安排来掩盖其收益权归属，包括在船上悬挂方便旗、设立壳公司和幌子公司来控股……还利用多层中介开展业务”。
The Dolphin 26’s rusty hull has seen better days. Its decks were corroded enough to draw the attention of inspectors in February, according to a Chinese port’s disciplinary report. The vessel was last spotted in mid-May in China’s northern port of Tianjin, ship-tracking service MarineTraffic shows.
船身锈迹斑斑的“Dolphin 26”号早已不在鼎盛状态了。根据中国一港口的执勤报告，这艘船的甲板腐蚀严重，以至在今年2月引起了检查人员的注意。船只跟踪服务机构MarineTraffic的记录显示，这艘船上次被发现是在5月中旬，地点是中国天津港。
There is no evidence to suggest it has been used to break any laws. But it shares many of the characteristics of ships that have.
目前没有证据表明，这艘船被用于从事违法活动。但它的许多特征与从事违法活动的船只相同。
The Dolphin 26 has changed its registered owner and manager six times and its name three times in the past eight years, while its flag has been switched four times in five years, according to maritime database Equasis.
海洋数据库Equasis的信息显示，过去8年，“Dolphin 26”号注册的所有者和管理者更换了6次，船名更改了3次;船上悬挂的旗帜在5年内更换过4次。
By swapping flags and shifting ownership between shell companies, experts say it is much more difficult to identify patterns and track the activities of people behind the shipping companies. Many of the businesses share Hong Kong addresses with the secretarial companies paid to represent them, a set-up commonly used by shell companies with no real assets in the territory.
专家表示，通过更换旗帜和改变壳公司所有权，发现规律以及追寻这些航运公司背后人物的活动踪迹就难上加难了。很多公司与有偿代表它们的秘书公司(secretarial companies)共用香港地址，这是在香港没有实际资产的壳公司普遍采取的做法。
The other ships managed by Union Link show similar patterns. The Oriental Lady has changed flag six times — twice to North Korea’s — since 2003. The Zhi Hui has used a North Korean flag four times since 2006.
联昇国际旗下的其他船只显示出类似的规律。自2003年以来，“Oriental Lady”号更换了6次旗帜，有两次更换为朝鲜国旗。自2006年以来，“Zhi Hui”号有4次悬挂朝鲜国旗。
“If you think about the time, energy and money these companies take to hide their true identity, you have to think that this is important,” says William Newcomb, former deputy co-ordinator of the US state department’s North Korea Working Group under President George W Bush.
曾在小布什(George W. Bush)时期担任美国国务院朝鲜工作小组(North Korea Working Group)副协调员的威廉•纽科姆(William Newcomb)表示：“如果你考虑到这些公司为隐藏真实身份所花费的时间、精力和资金，你不得不认为这肯定很重要。”
Xie Qun, the registered owner of Union Link, says she has cut down on the “stressful work” of running a shipping company in order to look after her child and elderly parents.
联昇国际注册的所有人Xie Qun说，为了照顾孩子和年迈的父母，她把经营一家船运公司的“繁重工作”削减了一些。
Speaking at a McDonald’s restaurant in Dalian, she says she severed ties with her last North Korean client in February, as the UN was about to approve fresh sanctions, and that she has never knowingly helped North Korean companies break the law.
她在大连的一家麦当劳(McDonald's)餐厅里说，今年2月，她切断了与最后一名朝鲜客户的联系，因为联合国即将批准实施新的制裁决议，而且她也从未在知情的情况下帮助朝鲜公司从事违法活动。
Ms Xie notes that many small shipping companies were registered under her name in Hong Kong, a strategy aimed at spreading risk — should one ship become involved in a dispute, other ships and companies would not be affected.
Xie Qun指出，香港有许多小型船运公司以她的名字注册，这一策略是为了分散风险——如果一艘船卷入纠纷，其他船只和公司不会受影响。
“It’s common practice in the industry to register many companies,” she says, adding that industry peers had told her to do so in Hong Kong, where companies can be registered without an address or assets in the territory.
她说：“注册许多公司是这一行里的常见做法。”她还说，当初是同行告诉她可以在香港注册，在那里注册公司不需要有当地的地址或资产。
Hong Kong company records show two dissolved shipping companies registered under Xie Qun’s name.
香港公司注册记录显示，有两家已告解散的船运公司是以Xie Qun的名字注册的。
The Chinese territory’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau says it is aware of reports from the UN Panel of Experts accusing companies of facilitating illicit trade with North Korea and is “looking into the cases in which Hong Kong-registered companies are said to be involved”.
香港商务及经济发展局(Commerce and Economic Development Bureau)表示，它知悉联合国专家小组(Panel of Experts)指责有公司为对朝非法贸易提供便利的报告，并“正在调查据说牵涉其中的香港注册公司”。
US regulators and research groups have homed in on several large Chinese companies, many based in Dandong on the border with North Korea, which they believe are aiding Pyongyang’s weapons programme, as well as the people behind the companies.
美国监管机构和研究团体已经锁定了数家中国大公司以及这些公司背后的人员，其中许多公司的总部位于靠近中朝边境的丹东市，他们相信，这些公司正在帮助平壤发展武器项目。
In late June, the US Treasury department accused the Bank of Dandong of financing activities related to proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Last September, the justice department charged Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development with conspiring to evade US sanctions and violating nuclear proliferation rules.
今年6月末，美国财政部指责丹东银行(Bank of Dandong)为与大规模杀伤性武器扩散相关的活动提供融资。去年9月，美国司法部指控丹东鸿祥实业发展有限公司(Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development)共谋逃避美国制裁并违反了核武器扩散条约。
A C4ADS report in June showed how Dandong Dongyuan Industrial had sent North Korea a shipment of navigational equipment worth $790,000 in 2016. A Chinese national, Sun Sidong, owned the Hong Kong-registered company whose ship transported it, which was seized in Egypt last year carrying 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades made in North Korea.
C4ADS今年6月的一份报告描述了丹东鸿祥是如何在2016年向朝鲜运送了一船价值79万美元的导航设备的。运送这批货物的船属于一家香港注册公司，该公司的所有人是一位名叫Sun Sidong的中国公民，这艘船去年在埃及被扣押时，装载着3万枚朝鲜制造的火箭推进榴弹。
However, North Korea-flagged ships — such as the Dolphin 26 — are falling into disuse.
然而，“Dolphin 26”号等悬挂朝鲜旗帜的船只正在被淘汰。
“My sense is the decrepit fleet of North Korea-flagged ships is increasingly less central to North Korean trade activity,” says Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert who is director of studies at Washington’s Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The North Korean flags are like targets . . . There are more and more of these ships flagged with Southeast Asian or African flags.”
位于华盛顿的彼得森国际经济研究所 (Petersen Institute for International Economics)研究主任、朝鲜问题专家马库斯•诺兰(Marcus Noland)表示：“我的感觉是，悬挂朝鲜旗帜的破旧船队越来越不占据朝鲜贸易活动的核心地位。朝鲜旗帜就像靶子……越来越多船只悬挂东南亚或者非洲国家的旗帜。”
In a Hong Kong industrial district far from the financial centre, a small accounting firm called Trustworthy Secretarial is Union Link’s only physical connection to the city in which it is registered. Trustworthy represents Union Link in Hong Kong but representatives in the company’s small, cluttered office said they could not comment on their client’s business.
在香港一个远离金融中心的工业区，一家名为信捷秘书服务(Trustworthy Secretarial)的小型会计师事务所，是联昇国际与香港的唯一实体联系。信捷秘书服务是联昇国际在香港的代表，但在该公司小而杂乱的办公室里，代理人们表示，他们不能就客户业务置评。
