Singapore shipping firm fined for North Korea-linked arms

SINGAPORE:

A Singapore shipping firm was fined yesterday for its role in an attempt to smuggle Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets from Cuba to North Korea in 2013. Chinpo Shipping Company Pte Ltd was found guilty by a Singapore district court of paying for a North Korean freighter to transit through the Panama Canal, in violation of UN sanctions. A UN report quoted in 2014 said Chinpo Shipping had acted as an agent for a Pyongyangbased company that operated the intercepted vessel.

Chinpo Shipping “transferred financial assets or resources that may reasonably be used to contribute to the nuclear-related programs or activities of” North Korea, a charge sheet said. This was in breach of UN sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear program. Chinpo Shipping was found guilty in December of wiring $72,000 to a shipping agent in Panama on July 8, 2013 to facilitate the passage of the North Korean freighter, Chong Chon Gang, through the Panama Canal. The Singapore court also convicted Chinpo Shipping of a second charge of conducting a remittance business without a license. The ship, bound for North Korea from Cuba, was intercepted and searched while navigating the Panama Canal on July 10, 2013. Authorities discovered 25 containers of military hardware, including two Soviet-era MiG-21 fighters, air defense systems, missiles and command and control vehicles, buried under 200,000 bags of sugar. Cuba had argued that the weapons were “obsolete” which the communist island had sent to Pyongyang for repair. —AFP