The United States government discussed ways to coordinate response with the international community in blocking North Korea's evasion of global sanctions at sea.

The U.S. Department of State, the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa and Côte d’Ivoire's Transport Ministry co-hosted the Global Maritime Security and Sanctions Enforcement Conference in Abidjan between Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the State Department, global maritime industry representatives from 25 countries sought measures to enhance enforcement of sanctions to prevent North Korea, Iran and other "rogue regimes" from exploiting commercial maritime supply chains to undertake proliferation activities.

The department said ship registries, maritime authorities, international organizations, and global coalitions shared challenges, lessons learned, and best practices to improve U.S. sanctions enforcement and to ultimately increase global maritime security.

The conference is regarded as part of Washington's efforts to revamp a coordinated system of sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang, after Moscow significantly undermined the United Nations' capacity to curb such transgressions by defending the regime for its arms supply and troop deployment in the war against Ukraine.