SEOUL—At a high-security location at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a group of investigators watched a presentation early last year with satellite imagery showing tankers picking up shipments in Chinese waters and elsewhere, and then traveling to North Korea’s oil facilities.

       The Russian representative in the group posed a question: “How do you know it’s oil? Is it water in those tankers? Is it wine?" he asked, according to people familiar with the exchange.

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