Chinese National Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Shipping Weapons to North Korea via China
Udumbara
A Chinese national who overstayed his student visa has been sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally shipping ammunition and other military items to North Korea via China.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office detailed Wen’s scheme, which began before he entered the United States.
Wen came to the United States on a student visa in 2012, but never left after it expired in December 2013.
Before coming to the United States, Wen met with North Korean officials at a North Korean embassy in China, where he received instructions to procure goods for Pyongyang.
After being contacted by two North Korean government officials in 2022, Wen began shipping firearms and other goods from the Port of Long Beach in 2023. He concealed these shipments by methods that included filing false export information.
In 2023, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms. One of the shipments arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024, before being transported to Nampo, North Korea.
In September 2024, Wen purchased approximately 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, which he intended to ship to North Korea.
In all, North Korean officials wired about $2 million to Wen to purchase firearms and other goods for their government.
In a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors in early August, Wen obscured the wire transfer from North Korean officials by having the money sent from a bank in China to Hong Kong, before depositing it into his girlfriend’s bank accounts.
Wen also acquired and attempted to acquire a thermal imaging system—used for reconnaissance and target identification—that could be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, and other aircraft, according to the court document.
North Korean officials also asked Wen to procure U.S. civilian plane engines in order to advance Pyongyang’s military drone program, prosecutors wrote.
Wen was also asked to obtain military uniforms, which would be used in the future for a “surprise attack on South Korea,” according to the court document.
“Once in the United States, defendant operated with a high level of sophistication demonstrated by the complicated criminal scheme he constructed and his own operational security he employed to obscure his criminal activities,” the court document reads.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Wen to 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
“A significant sentence is necessary to deter other similarly situated individuals from harming the national security of the United States,” the court document reads. “It is critical that we keep weapons and sensitive technology from countries that wish to harm the United States and its allies.”
The Epoch Times contacted Wen’s lawyer for comment, and didn’t receive a response by publication time.
One of the individuals, Shi Quanpei, was identified by the Treasury Department as a Chinese national who acted as a key facilitator for North Korea, helping to supply Pyongyang with sensitive electronics and metal sheets used in the production of North Korean missiles.
