Singapore slaps S$180,000 fine on North Korea-linked shipper

JAN 29, 20163:15 PM

[SINGAPORE] Singapore-based Chinpo Shipping Company (Private) Ltd was fined S$180,000 on Friday for facilitating a shipment of arms to North Korea in violation of UN 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 weapon programmes. It also found Chinpo guilty for carrying out a remittance business without a license between 2009 and 2013.

Chinpo Shipping was named by a 2014 UN report as helping arrange the shipment of Cuban fighter jets and missile parts that were 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 UN first began imposing economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea in 2006, according to the Singapore District Court.

REUTERS