WASHINGTON — The United States has seized a North Korean shipping vessel that was violating American law and international sanctions, the Justice Department announced Thursday, a move certain to escalate tensions already on the rise because of recent North Korean weapons tests. Prosecutors said the carrier ship, the Wise Honest, was being used to export North Korean coal, a critical sector of the North’s economy that the United States and the United Nations have aggressively imposed sanctions on in an effort to force Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program. The ship was also being used to import heavy machinery. It was the first time the United States has seized a North Korean cargo vessel for international sanctions violations, the Justice Department said. Officials said the seizure is part of a broad plan to enforce the international sanctions and ultimately pressure North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. “This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service,” said John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division. The complaint was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday by the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.<doc-sep>Dana Bash: This is so telling about where the Republican party is NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: Trump Tower stands on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on August 24, 2018 in New York City. Following new allegations over hush money that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid to an adult-film actress, the Manhattan district attorneyÕs office in New York City may seek criminal charges against the Trump Organization in the coming days. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Why GOP is standing in the way of Capitol riot investigation WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 08: US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) remarks on the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the US Capitol November 8, 2006 in Washington, DC. Warner said he supports President George W. Bush's nomination of former CIA Director Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense. Warner said he anticipates Gates' confirmation before the end of the year. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined by Senate Assistant Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (L) and Senate Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), speaks following a Senate Republican Policy luncheon at the Russell Senate Office Building on May 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. This Saturday, May 4, 2019, photo provided on Sunday, May 5, 2019, by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, equipped with binoculars, observing tests of different weapons systems, in North Korea. North Korean state media on Sunday said leader Kim observed live-fire drills of long-range multiple rocket launchers and unspecified tactical guided weapons, a day after South Korea's military detected the North launching several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (CNN) — The United States has seized a North Korean cargo ship, alleging sanctions violations by the country, the Justice Department said Thursday. The seizure is likely to heighten tensions between the two countries at a time when US efforts to dissuade North Korea from pursuing its nuclear weapons program have stalled following the failure of the Hanoi summit in February. The ship, the M/V Wise Honest, was used to haul valuable coal from North Korea that was sold in other countries, including China, according to the Justice Department. The US and the United Nations have said that North Korea has used illicit sales of its coal to fund the country’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. In a statement, senior Justice Department officials called the seizure the first of its kind, and said it was part of the US campaign of “maximum pressure” against the North Korean government. “This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “We are deeply committed to the role the Justice Department plays in applying maximum pressure to the North Korean regime to cease its belligerence.” The Wise Honest was North Korea’s second largest merchant ship and was capable of carrying tens of thousands of tons of cargo. Prosecutors said the ship was also used to haul heavy machinery into North Korea, including 412,584 kilograms of “steel plate.” The ship is on its way to American Samoa, according to Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, who spoke to reporters from the Justice Department Thursday. Berman said the ship was “recently taken into custody” but declined to provide an exact date for the transfer of custody. The ship was originally seized from the North Koreans by Indonesian maritime authorities in April 2018 and a US judge in July of that year issued a warrant authorizing the seizure of the ship. Berman denied that the timing of the unsealing Thursday of the seizure warrant had anything to do with the deterioration of nuclear trade talks between the US and North Korea, and the news out of South Korea that North Korea had launched two short range missiles. “There is no connection at all between the recent activities by North Korea and the unsealing of our seizure warrant. We have been pursuing this for months as indicated in the complaint,” Berman said. The complaint documents multiple shipments of coal delivered from North Korea to China as well as one instance where the ship was scheduled to make a stop in a Russian port, where cargo documents would be prepared to try and conceal the haul’s origin. According to the Justice Department, payments for maintenance and equipment to the ship were made in US dollars through “unwitting US banks.” Indonesian maritime authorities intercepted and detained the ship on April 2, 2018, as it sailed south with safety tracking equipment turned off and a load of coal it had picked up in Nampo, North Korea, one month earlier in its cargo, according to the complaint. A satellite photograph from March 2018 included as evidence in the complaint shows a ship that appears to be the Wise Honest tied alongside a dock in North Korea with “large quantities of what appears to be coal piled alongside the dock and in warehouses adjacent to it.” “There are also cranes and other equipment that appear consistent with what would be used to load coal into M/V Wise Honest,” the complaint says. The North Korean captain of the ship was arrested and charged with violations of Indonesian maritime law, according to the complaint, which says he was convicted by an Indonesian court in November 2018 of “offenses related to improper documentation for the ship.”<doc-sep>next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The United States has made a highly unusual seizure of a huge North Korean cargo ship involved in banned coal transports. But it's nothing new for North Korea, which has long gone to extraordinary lengths to bypass crippling U.N. sanctions and earn the impoverished nation much-needed hard currency. The seizure, which was announced Thursday, comes at a delicate moment in U.S.-North Korean ties, with North Korea resuming weapons tests that seem meant to force the United States to ease sanctions. Whether it worsens those ties could depend on if, as some experts believe, the North continues finding ways to evade the international sanctions on its exports. Here's an examination of the seizure of the Wise Honest, the North's second largest cargo ship, and how it fits into North Korea's alleged illicit pursuit of hard currency: ___ THE INONESIAN CONNECTION Before the United States seized it, the 581-foot (177-meter) ship was first detained by Indonesia in April 2018 while transporting a large amount of coal. North Korea is banned from exporting coal under U.N. sanctions toughened in 2017 to punish increasingly powerful weapons tests that year. Experts believe coal and other mineral exports help finance the North's weapons industry. Indonesia reported last September that the Wise Honest was registered under the jurisdictions of both North Korea and Sierra Leone, according to a March report by the United Nations Security Council. It said the ship sailed into Indonesian territorial waters with its Automatic Identification System turned off and "no report was made to the destined port authority for proper ship clearance." Justice Department lawyers on Thursday laid out the case for confiscating the ship in a complaint filed in New York. They said payments for maintenance and operation of the vessel were channeled through unwitting U.S. financial institutions in violation of American law. The U.N. report, citing Indonesian authorities, said the captain of the North Korean ship was subject to prosecution. But South Korean media reported Friday that all 25 North Korean crew members had apparently returned home. ___ GETTING SMATER AT EVADING SANCTIONS The Wise Honest is one of dozens of vessels North Korea has apparently used to deliberately evade international sanctions on coal exports and oil imports. The U.N. report said North Korea's illicit trade activities include rapidly growing ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal, and that those activities are meant to render U.N. sanctions ineffective. The report said North Korean vessels use advanced evasion techniques like identity theft, unlawful name-changing and sending false signals through a ship's AIS tracking device, which communicates the ship's location to other vessels, satellites and coastal base stations. The Wise Honest, which was transporting 25,500 tons of coal worth $2.99 million at the time of its impoundment in Indonesia, tried to avoid detection by illegally registering under the jurisdictions of two countries. The report said the ship was also sailing without hoisting a nationality flag. Indonesia named a South Korean company, Enermax, as the intended recipient of the Wise Honest's coal, which was to be moved ship-to-ship in the port city of Balikpapan on Borneo island. Enermax told South Korean investigators that there was no import of coal and that it had received an offer of Indonesia-origin coal from "someone who seemed to be a local broker in Indonesia." ___ WHAT COMES NEXT The U.S. seizure will anger North Korea, which sees a lack of U.S. rewards to match partial disarmament steps the North took last year. North Korea on Thursday fired two short-range missiles into the sea in the second such weapons launch in less than a week, according to Seoul and Washington. U.S. authorities might have taken action and seized the Wise Honest because they worried that Indonesia, which has maintained friendly ties with North Korea, was possibly going to return the ship to the North, said analyst Go Myong-Hyun of the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies. In response, North Korea may strongly criticize the United States and conduct more weapons tests. But North Korea won't likely retaliate by seizing a U.S. ship because it wants to quickly get back the Wise Honest. "North Korea doesn't have many big ships it can use for exports. If this size of ship is seized and that seizure isn't lifted quickly, it would greatly damage North Korea," said analyst Cho Bong-hyun of Seoul's IBK Economic Research Institute. Similar seizures of North Korean cargo ships will likely happen again as North Korea will keep trying to find ways to evade sanctions that are badly hurting the country's already troubled economy, experts say. U.N. sanctions on the North have intensified since 2016, because the North conducted a series of high-profile nuclear and missile tests meant to build a nuclear missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland. Newer sanctions imposed a full ban on key exports like coal, textiles and seafood; significantly curtailed oil imports; and required all U.N. member states to repatriate all North Korean laborers based in their countries by this December. The United States may return the ship to North Korea if relations improve. "The U.S. action could be more like a warning aimed at preventing North Korea from violating sanctions again rather than not sending it back for good," Cho said.<doc-sep>The US has sailed a North Korean cargo ship thousands of miles to American Samoa to investigate it over sanctions violations. The US is accusing the 17,000-ton ship, one of North Korea's largest cargo ships, of illicit coal shipments that violate US and UN sanctions. The assistant attorney general said that US "will use all tools at our disposal ... to enforce the sanctions enacted by the U.S. and the global community." The US accuses North Korea of "concealing the origin" of the ship and of using US financial institutions to "fund weapons programs which will be used to threaten our nation." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The US seized a North Korean ship and sailed it thousands of miles to check whether it has been used to violate international sanctions. The US alleges that the "Wise Honest," North Korea's second-largest cargo ship, was making illicit shipments of coal and heavy machinery — in violation of US and UN sanctions on North Korea. The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it had seized the 17,000-ton ship, the first time a North Korean ship has been commandeered over sanctions violations. The announcement came after North Korea appeared to launch two short-range missiles in a test, adding further tensions to its relations with the US. The Wise Honest arrived in the port of Pago Pago in the US territory of American Samoa on Saturday after a three-week journey, The Associated Press reported. Read more: The US just announced a rare seizure of a North Korean ship carrying banned coal — here's why the US took it and what could come next Assistant Attorney General Demers called the "Wise Honest" a "sanctions-busting ship" and said the US would ensure that North Korea complies with the international sanctions. "This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service," Demers said on Thursday. The US brought the North Korean ship, first detained by Indonesia, to American Samoa. Google Maps/Business Insider "North Korea, and the companies that help it evade US and UN sanctions, should know that we will use all tools at our disposal — including a civil forfeiture action such as this one, or criminal charges — to enforce the sanctions enacted by the U.S. and the global community." "We are deeply committed to the role the Justice Department plays in applying maximum pressure to the North Korean regime to cease its belligerence." Read more: A 'one in a million' satellite image captured the exact moment of North Korea's latest missile launch The UN Security Council has banned North Korea from exporting commodities like coal, lead, and iron, in a bid to prevent it from funding its nuclear and weapons programs. The Deparment of Justice accused North Korea of "concealing the origin of their ship" and accused Korea Songi Shipping Company, which was using the ship, of violating US law by paying US dollars for improvements and purchases for the ship through oblivious US financial institutions. The North Korean cargo ship, Wise Honest, middle, was towed into the Pago Pago Harbor on Saturday, May 11, 2019, in Pago Pago, American Samoa. AP Photo/Fili Sagapolutele "This seizure should serve as a clear signal that we will not allow foreign adversaries to use our financial systems to fund weapons programs which will be used to threaten our nation," Demers said. US Coast Guard public affairs officer Amanda Wyrick told the AP that the US would investigate the ship in American Samoa. She did not say where the ship would be brought after the investigation was complete. Read more: Here are the tactics that make North Korean artillery so dangerous The ship was first detained by Indonesia in April 2018, because it was not broadcasting a signal required to give information to other ships and authorities, the Department of Justice said.<doc-sep>
U.S. authorities seized a North Korean ship they allege Pyongyang used to illicitly transport coal in violation of U.S. and international sanctions, the Justice Department said. Officials said the seizure, which was disclosed on Thursday, was the first such U.S. action against North Korea for sanctions violations. The announcement came hours after North Korea launched two suspected short-range missiles, marking the Kim regime’s second weapons test in less than a week amid stalled nuclear talks with Washington. Justice Department officials said there was no connection between the timing of the ship seizure and themissile launches. Defying tight sanctions, vessels linked to Pyongyang use a large toolbox of tactics to import and export goods like oil and coal—and keep North Korea’s economy afloat. Illustration: Crystal Tai The 17,000-ton ship known as Wise Honest, which Indonesian maritime authorities detained off the island-nation’s coast in April 2018 and held since then, is on its way to American Samoa, officials said, after months of U.S. negotiations with international authorities. A U.S. federal judge in New York issued a sealed warrant for the ship’s seizure last July, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan filed a civil complaint on Thursday seeking the formal forfeiture of the ship. North Korea has 60 days to respond to the shipment allegations in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. An official at North Korea’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment. The Wise Honest, the second-largest of North Korea’s fleet, was also used to deliver heavy machinery back to North Korea, the complaint said. It was carrying a load of coal when Indonesian authorities intercepted it about 2,800 miles south of a North Korean port, the document said, where it was caught with the system that transmits information about its location turned off. U.S. dollars were used, in violation of U.S. sanctions, to make payments to vendors to maintain the ship, the Justice Department alleged, as the agency has stepped up efforts to try to block Pyongyang’s ability to circumvent sanctions and access the international financial system. “This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service,” said John Demers, who runs the Justice Department’s national-security division. The ship helped North Korea “continue its cycle of sanctions evasion,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said. “With this seizure, we have significantly disrupted that cycle.” Pyongyang has ratcheted up military provocations over the past month as it contends with an economy hobbled by sanctions and a widespread food shortage. This past weekend, the North launched several projectiles off its east coast, including what many weapons experts believe was a short-range ballistic missile. Share Your Thoughts What are the U.S.’s best options for dealing with North Korea’s sanctions violations and recent missile tests?Join the conversation below. A weapons launch featuring ballistic capabilities would defy United Nations Security Council resolutions that block Pyongyang from conducting such tests, nuclear experts said. Washington and Seoul haven’t said whether the short-range missile last week was ballistic. North Korea’s ability to evade sanctions on the export of coal and the import of petroleum products has been a major problem for the Trump administration, as it has sought to use economic pressure to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal and forces. A March report to the U.N. Security Council by a panel of international experts noted that North Korea has managed to transport “large quantities of coal” through a variety of deceptive practices. One common procedure to dodge sanctions is “double-flagging,” essentially registering the vessel under two jurisdictions. In the case of the Wise Honest, documents were registered under the flag of Sierra Leone and North Korea, the U.N. report noted. Another deceptive practice is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, or AIS, a transmission device that identifies a ship’s location to other vessels, satellites and land-based tracking systems. According to the U.N. report, the Wise Honest turned off the tracking system when it entered Indonesia’s waters. The report said the contract for the seized shipment carried by the Wise Honest was valued at $2.9 million. The U.N. investigators said cargo documents recovered by Indonesian authorities named the sellers of the coal as Hong Kong Nova International Trade Co., a Chinese firm that sells cigarette-manufacturing machinery with an office in Kiev, Ukraine. The company told U.N. investigators that it had no idea where the contract came from. A person answering the phone at the company’s Beijing office didn’t immediately comment.