AUSTRALIAN authorities are investigating a Sydney-based property company accused of breaching United Nations sanctions on North Korea by brokering an illicit sale of coal, according to a confidential UN report seen by Reuters.

Independent UN experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions accused Brigt Australia and its director, Livia Wang, of falsely stating that the shipment of coal had come from Russia when it had originated in North Korea, which has been subject to a UN Security Council ban on coal exports since August.

Brigt Australia and Ms Wang did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case against a company with no apparent experience in trading coal illustrates how UN experts say North Korea is using a network of foreign traders and front companies to evade tough international sanctions aimed at choking off funding for Pyongyang’s missile programs.

It is also unusual for a company in Australia — a close US ally — to be linked to North Korea trade.

When Australian police arrested a man in December accused of trying to sell missile parts and coal for North Korea, it was described as a case “like nothing we have ever seen on Australian soil.”

The UN experts said in their annual report to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee, which is due to be published this month, that the $770,250 coal shipment that Brigt Australia is accused of brokering “would constitute a violation of the resolutions, if confirmed.”

The Australian Federal Police, which probes breaches of UN sanctions, said it would not comment on investigations.

The UN experts have reported that North Korea violated sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, with many coal shipments using paperwork showing a false origin.

One page of a September 15 contract, annexed to the UN experts’ report, is stamped with a Brigt Australia seal that includes the company’s Australian business registration number.

A separate invoice, dated September 25, lists the shipment as 11,850 tonnes of coal that was loaded at Nakhodka, Russia.

The invoice, stamped by Brigt Australia, says the coal was loaded on to the Panama-flagged vessel Hua Fu and destined for Vietnam’s Cam Pha port. However, the UN experts said: “Russia confirmed no port call.”

The United States has asked the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee to blacklist the Hua Fu, subjecting it to a global port ban and deflagging.

Washington told the committee the Hua Fu loaded coal at North Korea’s Najin port on September 24.