US Seizes North Korean Ship Caught Breaking International Sanctions
Something I have been saying for a long time is these sanctions busting ships should be seized and then auctioned off with the money going to the victims of their terrorism attacks over the years. It appears at the least the seizure of North Korean ships may finally be happening:
The United States has seized a North Korean shipping vessel that was violating American law and international sanctions, the Justice Department announced Thursday, a move certain to escalate tensions already on the rise because of recent North Korean weapons tests.
Prosecutors said the carrier ship, the Wise Honest, was being used to export North Korean coal, a critical sector of the North’s economy that the United States and the United Nations have aggressively imposed sanctions on in an effort to force Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program. The ship was also being used to import heavy machinery.
It was the first time the United States has seized a North Korean cargo vessel for international sanctions violations, the Justice Department said. Officials said the seizure is part of a broad plan to enforce the international sanctions and ultimately pressure North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program.
“This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service,” said John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division. The complaint was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday by the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. (…….)Though the Justice Department obtained a sealed seizure warrant for the ship in July, officials said the timing of the complaint seeking the vessel’s forfeiture had nothing to do with the tensions between the two countries. On Thursday, the Wise Honest was in United States custody on its way to American Samoa, the Justice Department said.
The ship was used in a North Korean scheme to export tons of coal to foreign countries and to import heavy machinery in violation of international sanctions, prosecutors said.
New York Times
Indonesian authorities detained the ship in April 2018 after it was photographed at a North Korean port, loading what prosecutors said appeared to be coal. When the ship traveled to Indonesia, it tried to conceal details about its location by disabling its Automatic Identification System. The ship’s signal had been turned off since August 2017.
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