For The First Time Ever, US Seizes North Korean Ship Used To Bust Sanctions

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. government has seized a North Korean cargo vessel that was used to violate sanctions placed against the North Korean government.

National security officials announced on Thursday that the U.S. had seized the “Wise Honest,” a 17,061-ton ship that is registered in North Korea.

The Wise Honest was intercepted on April 2, 2018, while carrying coal from North Korea. The ship had not operated its automatic signaling system since Aug. 4, 2017, according to the Justice Department.

The ship was used to “illicitly ship coal from North Korea and to deliver heavy machinery” to the North Korean government, the Justice Department said. Payments to maintain the vessel were made in American currency routed through unwitting American banks.

“This conduct violates longstanding U.S. law and United Nations Security Council resolutions,” reads a Justice Department press release.

The seizure comes in the wake of escalating tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korea has launched two short-range missiles in the past five days, even as President Trump has claimed publicly that he hopes to continue negotiations over nuclear weapons with Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator.

On March 22, Trump made a surprise announcement on Twitter that he was withdrawing a new round of sanctions that the Treasury Department had placed against North Korea earlier that day.

The Wise Honest was used by the Korea Songi Shipping Company to export coal from North Korea to foreign clients from November 2016 through April 2018. The ship, in turn, imported machinery to North Korea.

The company is an affiliate of the Korea Songi General Trading Corporation, which was sanctioned on June 1, 2017 by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Songi Trading Corporation is a subordinate of North Korea’s army, the government says.

As part of a scheme to mask the Wise Honest’s country of origin, the Songi company “falsely” listed other countries on shipping documents. A representative of Songi also routed more than $750,000 in payments for coal shipments through unwitting U.S. banks.

Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said that the Wise Honest seizure was the “first-ever seizure” of a North Korean cargo ship alleged to have violated international sanctions.

“This scheme not only allowed North Korea to evade sanctions, but the Wise Honest was also used to import heavy machinery to North Korea, helping expand North Korea’s capabilities and continuing the cycle of sanctions evasion,” Berman said in a statement.

“With this seizure, we have significantly disrupted that cycle. We are willing and able to deploy the full array of law enforcement tools to detect, deter, and prosecute North Korea’s deceptive attempts to evade sanctions.”