Singapore firm guilty of facilitating arms shipment to N. Korea
The shippinf company had been accused of transferring financial assets or resources that may reasonably be used to contribute to the nuclear-related programmes or activities of North Korea
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 3:25pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 3:25pm
Associated Press in Singapore
Panamanian authorities had interdicted the Chong Chon Gang carrying two MiG-21 jet fighters, missile systems and other weapons hidden under tonnes of sugar. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A Singapore court on Monday convicted a Singapore-registered shipping company of transferring funds for facilitating a shipment of arms to North Korea, media reports said.
Chinpo Shipping Co. sent US$72,017 to a shipping agent in Panama in July 2013 for the return passage of the Chong Chon Gang, a vessel laden with concealed arms, through the Panama Canal, according to The Straits Times daily and Channel NewsAsia online.
Chinpo had been accused of transferring “financial assets or resources that may reasonably be used to contribute to the nuclear-related programmes or activities” of North Korea, in breach of United Nations sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear programme.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur was quoted as saying that this is “the largest amount of arms and related materiel interdicted to or from the DPRK” since the 2006 adoption of the first UN resolution imposing economic and commercial sanctions on the country known formally as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for conducting a nuclear test.
Kaur said Chinpo should have conducted due diligence and “taken some trouble to find out” what the money was used for.
Panamanian authorities had interdicted the Chong Chon Gang carrying two MiG-21 jet fighters, missile systems and other weapons hidden under tonnes of sugar.
The case has been adjourned until January 29 next year to await sentencing.
The maximum penalty for such an offence is a S$100,000 (about US$550,106) fine and five years’ jail, The Straits Times said.
