The United States Department of Justice has unveiled details of a covert operation where North Korea has been illegally obtaining weapons and military supplies from the United States. A Chinese national, Shenghua Wen, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in smuggling these materials to North Korea.
Wen, 42, received around $2 million from North Korean officials to facilitate these shipments. He was responsible for sending weapons and sensitive technology from the U.S. to North Korea. The court documents outlined how Wen, who arrived in the U.S. on a student visa in 2012, overstayed his visa. Before coming to the U.S., he was allegedly briefed by North Korean officials in China.
In 2022, Wen was instructed to send weapons via an online messaging app. In 2023, he dispatched weapon-filled containers from Long Beach Port (California), routing them through China. These shipments were falsely labeled as household items to avoid detection. One container was tracked to Hong Kong and subsequently to Nampo, North Korea, in January 2024.
The investigation also uncovered that Wen used the funds from North Korea to buy a gun shop in Houston, Texas. From this shop, he shipped thousands of weapons to California, which were then forwarded to North Korea. He also planned to acquire and ship approximately 60,000 rounds of ammunition in September 2024.
This illegal activity continued despite stringent international sanctions against North Korea. The UN Security Council has imposed a complete ban on North Korea’s acquisition of arms and military equipment. The U.S. has implemented its own sanctions in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Despite these measures, North Korea has found various ways to bypass these restrictions. A Singaporean shipping company was blacklisted by the U.S. in 2015 for aiding in illegal arms supply to North Korea.