South Korea briefly seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered ship it suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea, an official has said.

China denied the allegations, saying reports that it sold oil to North Korea did "not accord with the facts".

The claims come days after Donald Trump criticised China over claims that three companies had exported and imported millions of dollars of goods and oil to North Korea.

The South Korean official said on Friday that the Lightouse Winmore, chartered by a Taiwanese company and carrying oil products from South Korea, had transferred part of its cargo to a North Korean ship on 19 October.

The ship had headed towards its purported destination in Taiwan, but on reaching international waters transferred some of its 600 tonne cargo to the Sam Jong 2 and three other North Korean vessels, the South claimed.


:: New sanctions on N Korea an 'act of war'

Image: Kim Jong Un's regime has been targeted by sanctions

It was seized and inspected by customs authorities when it returned to South Korea's Yeosu port, the official said.

"This marks a typical case of North Korea shrewdly circumventing UN Security Council sanctions by using its illegal networks", he told journalists.

"The actions taken will be reported to the UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea in the future."

North Korea sanctions an 'act of war'

Three sanctions have targeted North Korea this year, taking aim at iron, coal, fishing, textiles, oil and refined petroleum products.

The Sam Jong 2 was one of four ships barred from international ports by the UN Security Council over suspicions that it had transported goods banned under the sanctions measures.

But images from the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), released at the end of November, appear to show an attempt between North Korea and China to conduct a ship-to-ship transfer, possibly of oil, to evade sanctions.

OFAC said it had found three Chinese companies had cumulatively exported about $650m (about £483m) worth of goods to North Korea and cumulatively imported more than $100m (about £744m) worth of goods between January 2013 and the end of August 2017.