Chon Gang News

The U.S. Coast Guard posted a list of vessels that are prohibited from entering the navigable waters of the U.S. or transferring cargo in the U.S., absent a specific determination from the U.S. Secretary of State or other limited provisional entry allowed by law. This list, which is published pursuant to the North Korea Sanction and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 and the Ports and Waterways Safety Act (PWSA) as amended by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), was last updated on February 2, 2018. DONG NAM NO. HIYOSHI MARU No.

Chinpo Shipping Company was fined a total of $180,000 on Friday (Jan 29) for transferring funds that could reasonably have been used to contribute to North Korea's nuclear programme and for running a remittance business without a valid licence. The company paid a Panamanian shipping agent $72,000 (£50,000) for the passage of North Korean ship the Chong Chon Gang through the Panama Canal. The arms shipment was hidden under more than 10,000 tonnes of sugar. The Chong Chon Gang was stopped while navigating the Panama Canal, by officials who suspected it was being used to smuggle drugs. "The haul, hidden under heaps of sugar and discovered by Panamanian authorities…

Singapore-based Chinpo Shipping Company (Private) Ltd was fined S$180,000 ($125,698) on Friday for facilitating a shipment of arms to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. The Singapore District Court had found Chinpo guilty in December of transferring financial assets or resources that could have been used to contribute to North Korea's nuclear and missile weapon programmes. It also found Chinpo guilty of carrying out a remittance business without a license between 2009 and 2013. Chinpo Shipping was named in a March 2014 U.N. report as helping to arrange the shipment of Cuban fighter jets and missile parts bound for North Korea, when they were seized in Panama in 2013. It was the largest amount of arms and related materiel interdicted to or from North Korea since the U.N.

Singapore-based Senat Shipping said on Friday it had done nothing illegal and that it was unreasonable to be put on a U.S. sanctions list for alleged connection with a blacklisted North Korean shipping company. The U.S. Department of Treasury on Thursday listed Senat, arguing it had supported Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMMC), which had arranged an illegal shipment of arms on the Chong Chon Gang ship that was seized in Panama in 2013. The sanctions will also target Senat's president, Leonard Lai, and a company vessel, the department said. "The US Treasury's move to put Senat and Leonard Lai on the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) list is a misguided measure purely based on Senat's historical dealings with OMM," said the company in a statement emailed to Reuters.

North Korea accused Mexico on Wednesday of illegally detaining one of its ships with some 50 crew and warned it would take "necessary measures" to release the vessel, which United Nations sanctions monitors say belongs to a blacklisted shipping firm. The 6,700-tonne freighter Mu Du Bong, which had come from Cuba, ran aground in July on a reef 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Tuxpan in Mexico's Veracruz state. Mexico said the ship remains in the port of Tuxpan. North Korea's Deputy UN Ambassador An Myong Hun told a small news conference on Wednesday that the Mu Du Bong was not linked to the blacklisted firm, Ocean Maritime Management Company, and therefore not subject to U.N. sanctions.

A North Korea shipping company has been renaming and reflagging its vessels so it can evade an arms embargo, a UN report has said. The effort by Pyongyang-headquartered Ocean Maritime Management Company, Ltd. is detailed in the report by a panel of experts that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The report makes clear the challenge of keeping banned arms and luxury goods from a nuclear-armed country with a history of using front companies to duck detection. North Korea is under United Nations sanctions because of its nuclear tests and missile launches. In addition to arms, Pyongyang is banned from importing and exporting nuclear and missile technology and is not allowed to import luxury goods.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on the North Korean shippers that operate the vessel Chong Chon Gang, seized by Panama in July 2013 for attempting to smuggle weapons from Cuba to North Korea. According to the UN, the shipping company, Ocean Maritime Management Company Limited, played a key role in arranging the shipment of concealed cargo of arms and related materiel from Cuba to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and as such attempted to evade established arms embargoes. Panamanian authorities reportedly stopped the vessel last year as it tried to enter the Panama Canal because they suspected that the vessel was smuggling drugs, but instead discovered two Cuban fighter jets, missiles and other live weapons beneath its cargo of sugar.

A U.N. Security Council committee on Monday blacklisted the operator of a North Korean ship, which was seized near the Panama Canal last year for smuggling Soviet-era arms, and raised concerns about Cuba's military cooperation with Pyongyang. The North Korea (DPRK) sanctions committee designated Ocean Maritime Management, which operated the Chong Chon Gang, the ship detained a year ago carrying arms, including two MiG-21 jet fighters, under thousands of tonnes of sugar. The company is now subject to an international asset freeze and travel ban. North Korea is under an array of United Nations and U.S. and other countries' sanctions for nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006 in defiance of global demands to stop.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) informs that representatives of the ship 'Chong Chon Gang' have paid the total amount of the fine for US$693,333.10 set due to the violation of the Regulations for Navigation in Canal Waters and consequently the ACP has authorized the release of the ship. ACP add that in the case of the ship Chong Chon Gang, its competence was limited to the violation of the vessel to Canal regulations, and is not related to any other fault outside Panama Canal jurisdiction.

Panama's Canal Authority has slapped a fine of up to $1-million on the owners of a North Korean ship seized in July 2013 for smuggling Cuban weapons destined for North Korea hidden under 10,000 tons of sugar, reports Reuters. The ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its 35-member crew remain in Panama, despite a request from Pyongyang seeking a "diplomatic manner" to resolve the situation. Panamanian investigators detained the vessel near the Atlantic entrance to the canal after receiving a tip it was carrying drugs. Cuban officials maintained the ship contained only a donation of sugar to North Korea, but investigators found military cargo hidden between containers stuffed with raw Cuban sugar. Source: Reuters