Chinese man put in jail for us for sending weapons to North Korea

A Chinese citizen was sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling firearms and other military items to North Korea, the US Justice Ministry said.

42 -year -old Schings Wen received about $ 2 million from North Korean officials (£ 1.5 million to send California’s items, a statement said on Monday.

Antario resident, California, Wen has been detained since December 2024. In June, he pleaded guilty that they would be able to violate the international law on emergency economic forces and be an illegal foreign government agent.

The Ven’s case illuminates different ways in which North Korea bypassed international sanctions on arms trading.

Describing Vena as an “illegal aliens”, the Ministry of Justice stated that he had entered the United States on a student visa in 2012 and remained in the country after the visa was completed in December 2013.

“Prior to entering the US, Ven met with North Korean government officials at the North Korean Embassy in China,” the agency said. “These government officials sent Vena to buy goods on behalf of North Korea.”

In 2022, two North Korean officials reached Wen through a messaging platform and told him to ship firearms and other US goods to North Korea, the Justice Ministry reports.

In 2023, he put at least three containers of firearms from Port Long Bich to China, and their final place was North Korea. He provided false information about the content of the container.

One of the containers he reported that he was carrying the refrigerator arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024, before he headed for North Korea.

He also purchased a business with a firearm in Houston with money in North Korean contact and drove weapons from Texas to California where they were delivered to send.

Last September, Wen bought about 60,000 ammunition ammunition, planning to send them to North Korea.

US authorities also said Wen received a “sensitive technology” he meant to send to North Korea, such as a chemical threat identification and a portable broadband receiver.

“Wen acknowledged in his agreement that he knew that at all the corresponding times he knew that there were illegally sending firearms, ammunition and sensitive technologies to North Korea,” the Ministry of Justice said.

According to sanctions by the UN Security Council, North Korea is forbidden to trade arms and military equipment. The US also imposed its own sanctions in North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

But North Korea has developed ways to bypass sanctions.

In 2015 the USA Black List of Singapore Shipping Firm Allegedly for supporting banned weapons to North Korea. In 2016, the Egyptian authorities intercepted a North Korean ship containing more than 30,000 grenades aimed at Egypt.

And in 2023, British American tobacco had to pay more than $ 600 million (£ 445) for Sell North Korea cigarettes with impaired sanctions.