Australia has deployed a long-range surveillance aircraft to monitor North Korea’s maritime smuggling activities funding the regime’s nuclear and missile programs in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.

A Royal Australian Air Force P‑8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is operating out of Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base from early to mid-October to track activity including illegal ship-to-ship transfers involving DPRK-flagged vessels, the ministry said in a press release on Friday.