A Chinese man has been sentenced to eight years in jail for smuggling firearms to North Korea that he believed would be used in a surprise attack on South Korea, the US justice department has said.
Shenghua Wen, 42, from California, admitted to receiving around $2m (£1.5m) from North Korean officials for shipping two containers loaded with weapons and other items from Long Beach, California to North Korea, via Hong Kong, in 2023.
He pleaded guilty in June to the charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
The Chinese national arrived in the US from China on a student visa in 2012 and remained illegally after his visa expired in December 2023.
Before coming to the US, he met with North Korean officials at an embassy in China, where he was asked to procure goods for Pyongyang.
Wen told investigators he believed the weapons were intended for a surprise attack on South Korea, and admitted to attempting to purchase uniforms to disguise North Korean soldiers, according to a criminal complaint filed in September.
Describing Wen as an illegal alien, the US justice department said two North Korean officials contacted him in 2022 via an online messaging platform and instructed him to smuggle illegal items to North Korea.
A year later he bought a business called Super Armory, a federal firearms licensee, in Houston for $150,000 to carry out operations and registered it under his business partner’s name in Texas.
He then sent at least three containers of firearms via Hong Kong and filed false information about the container’s contents with US customs.
One of the containers, which was documented as carrying refrigerators, docked at a Hong Kong port in January 2024 before it left for Nampo, North Korea.
Last September, Wen brought 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition to his home in Ontario, a suburb of Los Angeles, with the intention of shipping them to North Korea. They were stored in a van parked in the driveway.
Investigators also seized “sensitive technology” meant to be sent to North Korea, including a device to detect and identify hazardous chemicals and a transmission detection device.
The justice department said that Wen also acquired or offered to acquire a civilian airplane engine and a thermal imaging system that could be mounted on a drone, helicopter, or other aircraft, and could be used for reconnaissance and target identification.
North Korea has continued to circumvent international sanctions to procure items of all kinds from the outside world.
Despite bans on luxury items for ordinary citizens, North Korea continues to acquire high-end cars, watches, liquor, and electronics via middlemen and grey markets.
