Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe / AP

Japan exported some strategic items and luxury goods to North Korea over the past several years in violation of international sanctions, U.N. reports have shown.

According to 10 reports that the U.N. panel of experts wrote between 2010 and 2019, there have been multiple cases where restricted items, including sensitive equipment and luxury goods, have been shipped to North Korea from Japan despite U.N. sanctions.

The revelation came at a time when Japan has accused the South of leaking sensitive industrial materials to the North in violation of sanctions, in an attempt to justify the export restrictions it imposed against the South over a row surrounding Japan's wartime forced labor.

According to a 2016 report, commercial radar antennas made by a Japanese firm were acquired and adopted by North Korea for its naval vessels, and some of them were seen during the North's test-firing of an anti-ship missile publicized in February 2015 by the North's Rodong Sinmun.