North Korea wired an agent $2M to smuggle weapons, tech and disguises out of California

USA Today

2 days ago

Shenghua Wen, 42, was sentenced to eight years in prison in connection with the scheme that earned him $2 million from North Korean handlers. It comes after he pleaded guilty in June.
North Korean agents paid a Chinese national $2 million to smuggle U.S. weapons and technology that were to be used for a surprise attack on South Korea, federal prosecutors said Aug. 19.
Shenghua Wen, a 42-year-old illegal alien living outside Los Angeles, was sentenced to eight years in prison for the scheme, the Department of Justice announced. He was tapped by North Korean handlers to export guns, ammo, sensitive technologies and eventually disguises, court papers show.
Wen smuggled three shipping containers of guns and ammunition to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) before he was caught, prosecutors said.
"Wen's crimes jeopardized the national security of the United States and that of its ally, South Korea," prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum in the Central District of California. "Defendant's conduct was bold, and the purpose of his mission was alarming. According to defendant, he was charged with procuring the weapons and sensitive technology for North Korea so North Korea could prepare for a surprise attack against South Korea."
In addition to the three shipping containers' worth of arms, Wen planned to send 60,000 bullets and sensitive technologies, including a device to identify chemical threats, a thermal imaging device to be mounted on aircraft and an engine meant to be the precursor for a North Korean drone program, according to court papers.
The North Korean asset also planned to send military uniforms that the DPRK could use to disguise troops sent into South Korea, prosecutors said.
Wen's sentencing comes after he pleaded guilty on June 9 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which regulates trade with nations hostile to the U.S.
DPRK handlers paid Wen around $2 million for the scheme, which dates back to 2022 when he was first contacted online by North Korean officials, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In a letter to the judge, Wen's lawyers said the Chinese national accepted responsibility for what he had done.
"Mr. Wen is truly a book that is not best judged by its cover," his public defender Michael L. Brown II wrote. "The offense conduct suggests that he is someone sophisticated and bold as the government claims when in reality he was a lowly agent, without much agency, in desperate financial straights when he committed the offense conduct."
Wen's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
A surprise attack in the making
Wen came to the United States in 2012 on a student visa, according to prosecutors. His lawyers said he was seeking asylum after Chinese authorities had persecuted him for practicing Catholicism, which has been outlawed to varying degrees in communist China.
Prosecutors say he was already planning to become a North Korean asset at that point. Wen told the FBI in interviews that before moving to the U.S., he met with DPRK handlers at a North Korean embassy in China, court papers show.
North Korean officials contacted Wen online about 10 years later, provided him the money for a Federal Firearms License to allow him to deal arms and the California-based DPKR asset began making trips to Texas to buy guns.
Wen exported the weapons from Long Beach, near LA. He told U.S. authorities he was shipping a refrigerator, court papers show.
He "admitted that he believed the North Korean government wanted the weapons, ammunition, and other military-related equipment to prepare for an attack against South Korea," prosecutors said.
Investigators also found many images on his phone of U.S. military uniforms. Prosecutors said the photos were related to a plan to provide North Korean troops with disguises for the eventual attack.
U.S. arms in foreign hands
Wen's case is just the latest in international arms dealers making use of the American firearms market.
The top five weapons manufacturers in the world as of 2023 were all American companies, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Lockheed Martin's $60.8 million revenue was greater than the top three Chinese companies combined.
But American firearms have a way of making it into the hands of the nation's adversaries, from North Korean soldiers to cartels south of the border in Mexico.
The FBI regularly catches foreign nationals in the United States exporting arms to places around the world that American authorities consider hostile.
In March, federal officials charged a pair of men in Cleveland in connection with an operation to sell around 90 rifles and a machine gun to undercover agents posing as cartel members.
Mexico sued U.S. gun manufacturers over the avalanche of American guns that wind up south of the border, although the Supreme Court eventually ruled against the U.S. neighbor.
In April 2024, the Department of Justice charged a pair of foreign businessmen with conspiring to send anti-aircraft rounds, grenade launchers and automatic rifles to Iraq and Sudan.