The report, which covers the first seven months of this year, details tactics used by Pyongyang to dodge sanctions.
It was submitted Wednesday to the Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee, and will be released after discussion among the council’s permanent members.
North Korea has expanded its capacity to produce fissile materials – a key component of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices – at its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and is excavating tunnels at Punggye-ri that were destroyed amid denuclearisation talks with the US in 2018, according to the report.
Detonators that can be used in nuclear tests were being tested at Punggye-ri, according to a Security Council member.
Preparations for a nuclear test had entered into their final stages as of early June, according to an analysis by two Security Council members.
Cyber crime group Lazarus Group and others continue to engage in cyber attacks, stealing hundreds of millions of US dollars in cryptocurrencies, including ethereum and USD coin, according to the report.
Forty-seven companies and institutions, including defence contractors, became infected with new malware distributed by Lazarus Group in the first quarter of 2022.
The report points out that North Korea is increasingly using non-fungible tokens for money laundering.
The report claims that Lazarus stole cryptocurrencies in late March from services linked to NFT-based game Axie Infinity, popular in the Philippines and elsewhere.
In January, Lazarus targeted “multiple chemical and IT sector organizations to obtain intellectual property” in a campaign dubbed “Operation Dream Job”, which installed malware on victims’ devices, the report says.
The report suggests North Korea is still smuggling substantial quantities of refined petroleum products into its borders.
Pyongyang’s reported imports from UN member countries as of July 27 came to just 8.15% of the annual limit of 500,000 barrels set in a Security Council resolution.
But the country, according to one member country, is estimated to have actually brought in 458,898 barrels, close to the cap.
North Korea has also kept exporting coal in defiance of a Security Council ban.
A study by an expert panel and UN members found that Pyongyang has continued to unload coal shipments in China’s territorial waters, without mentioning specific quantities.
The report touched on the spread of the coronavirus in North Korea.
“There can be little doubt that UN sanctions have unintentionally affected the humanitarian situation,” it said of the wave of infections in the country.
While not legally binding, such reports have served as a basis for measures taken against individuals or organisations found to have violated sanctions.