France deploys surveillance aircraft to enforce U.N. sanctions, deter illicit North Korean actions

FORUM Staff

France demonstrates its commitment to security and stability in the Info-Pacific by annually deploying assets to uphold and enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions to deter North Korean nuclear proliferation.

In October 2023, the French Polynesian Armed Forces’ Falcon Guardian, a maritime surveillance aircraft based in Tahiti, arrived in Japan to support the multinational Enforcement Coordination Cell (ECC). The two-week mission included collecting information on maritime law violations and enforcing U.N. sanctions imposed in response to North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear weapons development.

The U.N. has routinely condemned North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, which continue in the isolated nation even as its citizens face starvation, acute shortages of medication and a failing state-run economy. The resolutions prohibit coal exports and cap petroleum imports that support the regime’s illegal weapons programs.

Pyongyang has repeatedly sought to evade the sanctions. The authoritarian regime breaches the petroleum cap by using black markets and clandestine ship-to-ship oil transfers, according to analysts.

Among the U.N.’s responses to North Korea’s flagrant violations is the Pacific Security Maritime Exchange (PSMX), an information-sharing initiative among Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. The ECC, based in Okinawa, Japan, regularly hosts personnel from partner countries and is a key component of the PSMX. Coalition countries contribute aircraft, ships and personnel to spot illicit actions in international waters.

“At the tactical level, naval warships and aircraft patrol the East China and Yellow seas in search of suspected smugglers,” U.S. Navy Lt. Artem Sherbinin wrote on the War on the Rocks website. “At the operational level, the (ECC’s) international staff, stationed onboard the command ship USS Blue Ridge, synthesizes intelligence on North Korea’s maritime smuggling network and directs interdiction and collection efforts by … ships and aircraft. At the strategic level, U.S. intelligence agencies work alongside the [U.S.] State and Treasury departments to uncover evidence of smuggling and sanction individuals and organizations that violate U.N. sanctions.”

Since the ECC’s creation in 2018, France has deployed surveillance aircraft, vessels and other assets to the mission twice a year, affirming its commitment to U.N. resolutions. As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, France is dedicated to enforcing international law globally and in full interoperability with its allies, and especially to fighting illegal trafficking and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

French Armed Forces in the Indo-Pacific have also participated in recent multilateral engagements including the Sama Sama maritime training in the Philippines, the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training exercise in Singapore, the U.S. Air Force Mobility Guardian exercise across the region, and the humanitarian relief exercise Pacific Endeavor in California. France’s Pegasus 23 deployment included 19 aircraft and 320 Airmen participating in the multilateral Talisman Sabre exercise in Australia and air maneuvers across the region with partners including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the U.S.