This handout picture was obtained on July 30, 2021 and provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, showing the tanker M/T Courageous docked at an undisclosed location and date.
U.S. Department of Justice/AFP
- The United States seized an oil tanker believed to be Singapore-owned.
- Allegedly, the tanker was used to illegally transport oil to North Korea.
- The Department of Justice stated that the shell company was used to hide the plan.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the U.S. seized a Singapore-owned oil tanker on Friday for illegally transporting oil to North Korea.
A New York federal judge issued a confiscation verdict, authorizing the United States to take ownership of M/T Courageous currently in Cambodia.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Justice, the ship has a capacity of 2,734 tons and was purchased by Singaporean national Kwek Kee Seng and is still at large.
The statement further added:
Kwek and his accomplices participated in a wide-ranging plan to evade… U.S. and UN sanctions, using ships under their control to secretly deliver fuel to North Korea.
From August 2019 to December 2019, “Courage” will illegally stop transmitting its location information. Satellite images show that during this period, the tanker delivered more than 1.5 million U.S. dollars worth of oil to a North Korean ship.
The department accused Guo of trying to conceal the plan by using shell companies, lying to international shipping authorities, and misidentifying “brave men” to avoid detection.
Guo was accused of conspiracy to evade economic sanctions against North Korea and a money laundering conspiracy.
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The Cambodian authorities seized the tanker under a U.S. arrest warrant in March 2020, and the Courageous has been detained there ever since.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a civil confiscation lawsuit against the tanker on April 23.
Relations between Washington and Pyongyang are tense, and the North Korean foreign minister ruled out any talks with the United States in June, saying that such talks “will make us nothing.”
Negotiations between the two countries have long been stalled by international sanctions imposed on this nuclear-weapon country and what North Korea should give up in exchange for sanctions.
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