Authorities have uncovered a sophisticated scheme where North Korea has been secretly obtaining weapons and military supplies from the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that Shenghua Wen, a Chinese national, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling these items to North Korea.
Wen, who is 42 years old, was paid approximately $2 million by North Korean officials to orchestrate the shipments. His role involved sending weapons and sensitive technology from the U.S. to North Korea. Wen initially arrived in the U.S. in 2012 on a student visa and remained in the country after his visa expired in 2013. Court documents revealed that before coming to the U.S., he met with North Korean embassy officials in China and was given the mission to secure weapons and supplies.
In 2022, Wen received directives to send weapons through an online messaging app. He then proceeded to ship containers filled with weapons from Long Beach Port (California) via China in 2023. These shipments were falsely labeled as household goods to evade scrutiny. One of these containers was tracked to Hong Kong and subsequently to Nampo, North Korea, in January 2024.
The investigation additionally showed that Wen used funds provided by North Korea to purchase a gun shop in Houston, Texas. From this shop, he shipped thousands of weapons to California, which were ultimately destined for North Korea. Moreover, he planned to acquire and dispatch roughly 60,000 rounds of ammunition in September 2024.
This illegal activity occurred despite existing international sanctions. The UN Security Council has a strict ban on North Korea’s procurement of arms and military equipment. The U.S. has also imposed its own sanctions due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, yet North Korea managed to find ways around these restrictions. In 2015, a shipping company from Singapore was blacklisted by the U.S. for assisting North Korea with illegal arms supply.