Chinpo Shipping Company paid a Panama shipping agent US$72,000 in 2013, for the passage of a North Korean vessel Chong Chon Gang through the Panama Canal, in breach of United Nations sanctions against North Korea, due to its nuclear programme. Singapore-registered Chinpo Shipping Company on Monday (Dec 14) was found guilty of facilitating a shipment of arms to North Korea.
In July 2013, Chinpo had paid Panama shipping agent C B Fenton and Co US$72,016.76 for the passage of a North Korean vessel Chong Chon Gang through the Panama Canal.
By doing so, Chinpo had “transferred financial assets or resources that may reasonably be used to contribute to the nuclear-related programmes or activities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, according to the charge sheet.
This is in breach of United Nations sanctions against North Korea, due to its nuclear programme. The Chong Chon Gang was carrying “six trailers associated with surface-to-air missile systems and 25 shopping containers loaded with two disassembled aircraft, 15 aircraft engines, components for surface-to-air missile systems and … ammunition”, all hidden beneath 10,500 metric tons of sugar.
This is “the largest amount of arms and related materiel interdicted to or from the DPRK” since the adoption of the UN resolution which imposes economic and commercial sanctions on DPRK in 2006.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur noted in her judgement that Chinpo said the money was “earned from freight and did not belong to it” so they would make payments to whoever the DPRK entities wanted them to.
