North Korea has developed sophisticated ways to circumvent United Nations sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate an illegal trade in weapons, a United Nations report issued Tuesday said.

The report claimed that North Korea is also using more complicated financial countermeasures and techniques "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations" to make tracking its purchases of prohibited goods more difficult.

The report, compiled by a panel of eight U.N. experts, is part of an annual accounting of North Korea's compliance with U.N. sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons and missile programs. The panel reports to the U.N. Security Council.