Reuters/KCNA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) smiles during a visit to the Sinhung Machine Plant in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 1, 2016.
- Oil fell more than 1.50% Friday afternoon.
- A UN Security Council panel is probing major oil traders and refiners on how they comply with North Korean sanctions.
- Follow oil prices in real time here.
Oil fell more than 1.5% Friday afternoon, interrupting a months-long rally, after a United Nations security panel sent a letter probing some of the biggest oil traders in the world for information on what measures they take to prevent sanctioned goods from reaching North Korea.
Brent, the international benchmark, shed 1.51% to $78.42 per barrel at 2:30 p.m. ET. West Texas Intermediate was down 0.25% to $71.42. Crude had rallied to fresh highs Thursday, with Brent trading above $80 a barrel for the first time since late 2014.
Bloomberg News first reported that a UN Security Council panel sent the inquiries to 24 major oil traders and refiners on May 11. The letter asks recipients to outline what they are doing to prevent sales of crude and petroleum products to North Korea.
The UN has been pushing sanctions against North Korea, including caps on oil imports to the country, for more than a decade in efforts to curb funding for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
"We are hoping that this will become an industry norm and an industry standard," the panel's coordinator Hugh Griffiths told Bloomberg.
Check out the full Bloomberg story here.
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