Sanctions Evasion Reference

Panel of Experts

A group of specialists appointed by the UN Security Council to monitor a sanctions regime and report publicly on violations and evasion methods.

also known as

UN Panel of Experts, PoE

reviewed

2026-08-20

Panels investigate in the field, interview member states, examine recovered materiel and inspect documents, and publish annual and interim reports with photographs, corporate records and vessel movements as annexes.

For open-source research on evasion they are the single richest resource in existence, because they describe specific, evidenced schemes at a level of detail no regulator publishes. Citing them by report number and paragraph, as this site does, lets any reader check the underlying finding.

The North Korea panel no longer exists

The panel attached to the North Korea regime — established under resolution 1874 (2009) and the most productive of them — stopped work in 2024. Russia vetoed the renewal of its mandate in March 2024, and the mandate expired on 30 April. Its final report, S/2024/215, is the last of the series.

Because a panel is created by Security Council resolution, a veto is enough to end one. That is a structural feature of the mechanism rather than an accident: the body monitoring a regime can be switched off by a permanent member without the underlying sanctions changing at all.

What replaced it

Eleven states — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States — established the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team in October 2024 to continue the monitoring outside the UN system.

The MSMT publishes reports of the same kind. Its first, on arms transfers between North Korea and Russia, was issued in May 2025 and circulated to the Security Council as S/2025/340; its second, on cyber operations and information technology workers, followed in October 2025. This site cites both, by paragraph or page.

The difference worth registering is authority rather than quality. A Panel of Experts reported to a Security Council committee and its findings carried the standing of a UN document. The MSMT reports to its participating states. The evidence is gathered the same way; what has changed is who it is addressed to.

Where this term is used

  • How are aircraft parts procured in breach of sanctions? — Buying airframe and engine components through intermediaries in unrestricted countries, so that parts for a restricted operator's Western-built fleet arrive with clean paperwork and no airworthiness trail.
  • What is flag hopping? — Re-registering a ship repeatedly between flag states, often to registries with limited oversight, so that its regulatory history is broken and its documented identity keeps changing.
  • What is cargo origin blending? — Mixing, decanting or re-documenting a commodity in transit so that restricted cargo is no longer traceable to its origin and arrives certified as coming from somewhere else.
  • How is cryptocurrency used to evade sanctions? — Settling obligations in virtual assets so that value moves without a correspondent bank, a payment message or a screening system in the path, and without any institution able to block it in transit.
  • What is a ship-to-ship transfer? — Transferring cargo directly between two vessels at sea, rather than through a port, so that the cargo changes hands where there is no port authority, no customs entry and no independent record.

Related terms

  • Typology — A published study describing how a category of illicit activity is actually carried out, built from case material contributed by member jurisdictions.
  • Proliferation financing — The provision of funds or financial services used for the manufacture, acquisition or transfer of weapons of mass destruction or their delivery systems, contrary to international obligations.
  • Zombie registry — A ship registry that continues to issue documentation in a state's name after that state has withdrawn authorisation, or that never had it.
  • Designations feed — A rolling, machine-readable record of additions to and removals from sanctions lists, published by the issuing authority and republished by aggregators.

Sources

  1. Reports of the Panel of Experts, 1718 Committee (Democratic People's Republic of Korea). United Nations Security Council, 2024.
  2. Report of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to resolution 1874 (2009). United Nations Security Council, 2024. S/2024/215, the Panel's final report before its mandate lapsed.
  3. Unlawful Military Cooperation including Arms Transfers between North Korea and Russia (MSMT/2025/1). Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, 2025. First MSMT report, 29 May 2025; circulated to the Security Council as S/2025/340.
  4. The DPRK's Violation and Evasion of UN Sanctions through Cyber and Information Technology Worker Activities (MSMT/2025/2). Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, 2025. Second MSMT report, 22 October 2025.

All glossary terms