Shenghua Wen, 42, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in connection with a plan that won $2 million from a North Korean handler. He comes after he pleaded guilty in June.
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North Korean agents have paid $2 million to smuggle the US weapons and technology used in the shocking attacks on South Korea, federal prosecutors said on August 19.
Shenghua Wen, an illegal 42-year-old foreigner living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the scheme, the Justice Department has announced. He was slapped and eventually disguised by North Korean handlers to export guns, ammunition and sensitive technology, court papers show.
Wen smuggled three shipping containers, guns and ammunition, to the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) before he was caught, prosecutors said.
“Wen’s crimes put the national security of the United States and its allies at risk,” prosecutors said in a memorandum of California’s Central District ruling. “The defendant’s actions were bold and the purpose of his mission was incredible. According to the defendant, he was accused of procuring North Korea’s weapons and delicate technology, allowing North Korea to prepare for a surprising attack on South Korea.”
The company plans to send 60,000 bullets and sensitive technology, including chemical threats, aircraft-mounted thermal imaging devices, and engines that will premonitor North Korea’s drone programmes. According to court documents, it plans to send 60,000 bullets and sensitive technology.
North Korean assets were also planning to send military uniforms that DPRK could use to disguise the troops sent to South Korea, prosecutors said.
Wen’s ruling comes after he pleaded guilty on June 9 to act as an illegal agent for a foreign government and a conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Power Act, which regulates trade with countries hostile to the United States.
According to the US Lawyer’s Office, DPRK Handler paid about $2 million for the scheme.
In a letter to the judge, Wen’s lawyer said the Chinese people accepted responsibility for what he did.
“Mr. Wen is the book that is not best judged by its cover,” wrote his official defense attorney, Michael L. Brown II. “The criminal act suggests that he is a sophisticated and bold man, as the government claims when he was a desperate financial straight when he actually committed a criminal act and that he is a sophisticated and daring man.”
Wen’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
A surprising attack in production
According to prosecutors, Wen came to the United States in 2012 on a student visa. His lawyers said he had sought asylum after Chinese authorities persecuted him for practicing Catholicism.
Prosecutors say he was already planning to become a North Korean asset at that time. In an interview, Wen told the FBI that he met with DPRK handlers at the North Korean embassy in China before moving to the US, a court paper shows.
North Korean authorities contacted WEN online about ten years later, providing him with federal firearms license money to allow him to handle weapons, and California-based DPKR assets began traveling to Texas to buy guns.
Wen exported arms from Long Beach near LA. He said he was shipping the fridge to authorities, court documents show.
He admitted that he believes the North Korean government wants weapons, ammunition and other military-related equipment to prepare for an attack on South Korea,” the prosecutor said.
Investigators also found many images on his cell phone in US military uniforms. Prosecutors said the photos were linked to plans to provide North Korean troops with disguise for the final attack.
Our weapons in foreign hands
Wen’s case is the latest in an international arms dealer using the American firearms market.
According to Stockholm International Peace Institute, as of 2023, all of the world’s top five weapons manufacturers were American companies. Lockheed Martin’s $60.8 million revenue was greater than the top three Chinese companies combined.
But American firearms have a way to get it into the hands of the nation’s enemies, from North Korean soldiers to cartels south of the Mexican border.
The FBI regularly catches foreigners in the United States, which exports arms to locations around the world that American authorities deem hostile.
In March, federal officials accused a pair of Cleveland men in connection with a surgery to sell around 90 rifles and an operation to sell machine guns to cover agents pose as cartel members.
Mexico sued the US gun maker for an avalanche of American guns that was caught up in the south of the border, but the Supreme Court eventually ruled its US neighbors.
In April 2024, the Justice Department conspiracy to send a pair of foreign businessmen with anti-aircraft rounds, grenade launchers and automatic rifles to Iraq and Sudan.
