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The Department of Justice has announced that a Chinese national has pleaded guilty to illegally exporting firearms, ammunition, and sensitive military technology to North Korea.

Getting into it: In an announcement, the DOJ confirmed that Shenghua Wen, a 42-year-old Chinese national living illegally in the United States, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Wen admitted to working directly with North Korean government officials who instructed him to procure firearms, ammunition, and sensitive military-grade technology for shipment to North Korea in violation of US sanctions. These officials first contacted Wen through encrypted messaging after he had met with them at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing prior to his arrival in the US in 2012. He was paid approximately $2 million through intermediaries to fund the operation.

To carry out the scheme, Wen purchased a licensed firearms business in Houston, Texas, using funds wired by contacts connected to the North Korean regime. He then acquired various weapons and sensitive items, including at least 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, a chemical threat identification device, and a broadband receiver capable of detecting encrypted transmissions.

He also sought to obtain a thermal imaging system that could be mounted on aerial vehicles for reconnaissance, as well as a civilian aircraft engine. Many of these items were purchased in Texas and transported by Wen himself to California.

According to court documents, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms out of the Port of Long Beach, California, in 2023. He deliberately mislabeled the shipments to evade detection. One of the containers arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024 and was then successfully transported to the North Korean port city of Nampo. The other shipments also followed similar routes, though it is not publicly confirmed if they all reached their intended final destination.

Wen is scheduled to be sentenced on August 18. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.