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A California Chinese citizen was sentenced to eight years in prison for transporting firearms and ammunition to North Korea.
According to the US Lawyer’s Office in Los Angeles, North Korean officials paid Shenghua Wen about $2 million (1.7 million euros) to ship two containers of weapons and other items from Long Beach, California, via Hong Kong, to North Korea, in 2023.
The 42-year-old pleaded guilty in June to one count of a conspiracy to violate the international emergency economic forces law and one act as an illegal agent for a foreign government, authorities said. Wen was sentenced Monday.
Wen arrived in the United States from China on a student visa in 2012 and remained illegally in the country after it expired in December 2023.
He told investigators he met with North Korean officials at a Chinese embassy before he entered the United States, where he instructed him to procure goods for Pyongyang.
Wen admitted that he believed the weapon would be used in a surprising attack on South Korea, and attempted to buy uniforms to hide North Korean soldiers, according to criminal charges filed in September.
In 2022, North Korean officials contacted WEN via an online messaging app and instructed them to purchase firearms, the lawyers’ office said.
To carry out his business, Wen purchased a business called Super Armory, a federal firearms licensee, in 2023, and registered it in the name of his business partner in Texas.
He let others buy firearms, then drive them to California, misrepresenting the cargo as part of a refrigerator and camera. Investigators did not say whether Wen organized cargo during his first decade in the United States.
In September, the FBI seized 50,000 rounds of ammunition from Wen’s home in the Los Angeles suburbs of Ontario, which was kept in a van parked in a driveway. They also seized a chemical threat identification device and a communication detection device that Wen said was planning to send to the North Korean government for military use.
Authorities did not specify the type of weapons exported in the complaint.
The UN resolution bans North Korea from trading weapons. Washington also imposed its own sanctions on nuclear and ballistic missile activities against Pyongyang.
Pyongyang criticizes Seoul
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has indicated his intention to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the northern border with US ally South Korea, and recently delivered nuclear-responsive missile launchers to frontline military forces.
This week, the virus reignited between Seoul and Pyongyang as South Korea and the US launched large joint military exercises each year.
Kim denounced the drill and vowed to rapidly expand his nuclear forces to counter his rivals as he inspected the country’s most advanced warships, state media said Tuesday.
North Korea called aside to resume diplomacy between the two rivals from South Korea’s new liberal president, Lee Jaemuun. And the relationship has become sour in recent years as Kim accelerated his weapons programme and deepened his cooperation with Moscow, following the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022.
According to national media, Kim Yong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, on Wednesday once again hampered South Korea’s efforts to improve South Korea’s relations, saying Pyongyang would never accept Seoul as a diplomatic partner.
Kim told Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that a settlement with South Korea would never happen, urging the province to pursue “appropriate measures” against Seoul.
In response to Kim Yeo-jung’s comments, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which deals with South Korea relations, said Lee’s government continued to take “proactive measures for peace” and called for mutual respect between the nations.
Additional sources •AP
