{"id":35454,"date":"2024-12-03T21:35:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T03:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35454"},"modified":"2024-12-03T21:35:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T03:35:48","slug":"man-in-california-accused-of-sending-north-korea-arms-seoul-attack-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35454","title":{"rendered":"Man in California accused of sending North Korea arms, Seoul attack plot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">A man in California has been arrested for allegedly sending weapons and ammunition to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/world\/north-korea\"><u>North Korea<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;from the U.S., prosecutors announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The big picture:&nbsp;<\/strong>Shenghua Wen, a Chinese national living unlawfully in Ontario, is accused of spending $2 million on weapons for Pyongyang and allegedly told the FBI he believed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/09\/11\/north-korea-kim-jong-un-visit-russia\"><u>Kim Jong-un&#8217;s<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;regime wanted the arms &#8220;to prepare for an attack against&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/03\/south-korea-emergency-martial-law\"><u>South Korea<\/u><\/a>,&#8221; per a criminal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25432710-us-v\/\"><u>complaint<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Wen, who entered the U.S. on a since-expired student visa in 2012, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a federal law prohibiting such shipments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Zoom in:&nbsp;<\/strong>The 41-year-old told investigators that the North Korean government wanted him to obtain military uniforms in the U.S. &#8220;to disguise their soldiers to conduct a surprise attack on South Korea,&#8221; the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The U.S. has a large military presence in South Korea and regularly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/10\/31\/us-south-korea-largest-warplane-air-drills\"><u>conducts drills<\/u><\/a>\u00a0with the key ally that are designed to counter threats from Pyongyang.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:&nbsp;<\/strong>Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/ontario-man-arrested-complaint-alleging-he-exported-shipments-firearms-ammunition-and\"><u>statement<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;Tuesday it is &#8220;essential that we protect our country from hostile foreign states that have adverse interests&#8221; to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;We have arrested a defendant who allegedly acted at the direction of the North Korean government by conspiring to illegally ship firearms, ammunition, and other military equipment to North Korea,&#8221; Estrada added.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis said in a statement the &#8220;significance of this arrest and discovery of this scheme cannot be overstated.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Davis added: &#8220;Not only did the investigative team prevent additional restricted items going to the North Korean regime, but they gathered valuable intelligence for the United States and our allies.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What we&#8217;re watching:&nbsp;<\/strong>Wen faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison in convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">His arraignment is expected to occur in the coming weeks, prosecutors said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/04\/california-weapons-shipments-north-korea-south-attack-plot-alleged\">axios<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man in California has been arrested for allegedly sending weapons and ammunition to&nbsp;North Korea&nbsp;from the U.S., prosecutors announced Tuesday. The big picture:&nbsp;Shenghua Wen, a Chinese national living unlawfully in Ontario, is accused of spending $2 million on weapons for Pyongyang and allegedly told the FBI he believed&nbsp;Kim Jong-un&#8217;s&nbsp;regime wanted the arms &#8220;to prepare for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1925,1189,2045,2758,31442,1852],"class_list":["post-35454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-attacks","tag-california","tag-charged","tag-north-korea","tag-seoul","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35456,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35454\/revisions\/35456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}