US seizes Singapore-based tanker suspected of delivering oil illegally to North Korea

The American Justice Department said on Friday that a Singapore-based oil tanker was being used to conduct illegal oil deliveries to North Korea. A federal judge in New York issued a forfeiture judgement allowing the US to take possession of the tanker M/T Courageous, which is now in Cambodia. 

According to a Justice Department statement, the Singaporean national Kwek Kee Seng purchased the ship which has a huge capacity of 2,734 tonnes. Kwek and his co-conspirators participated in a comprehensive plot to evade US and UN sanctions by covertly transporting petroleum to North Korea using vessels under their control.

Tanker engaged in ship-to-ship transfer

M/T Courageous stoppped transmitting its location information unlawfully from August until December 2019. The tanker engaged in ship-to-ship transfers of more than $1.5 million worth of oil to a North Korean ship during that time, according to satellite imagery.

Kwek is accused of attempting to conceal the plot by using shell businesses, lying to foreign shipping authorities, and falsely identifying M/T Courageous in order to escape detection, according to the Justice Department. Kwek has been accused of conspiring to dodge North Korean economic restrictions as well as money laundering. On a US warrant, Cambodian police seized the tanker in March 2020, and the Courageous has been imprisoned there since.

Prosecutors allege that Kwek and his associates devised a complex strategy to circumvent sanctions by utilising vessels, including M/T Courageous, to transfer essential petroleum supplies to North Korea while other ships were prohibited from doing so. Prosecutors also claim that the deliveries and related transactions made with US currency through US institutions violated US and UN sanctions against North Korea.

Negotiations between two countries have been stalled

On April 23, the Southern District of New York's US Attorney's Office filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against the ship. Relations between Washington and Pyongyang remain tight, with North Korea's foreign minister dismissing any negotiations with the US in June, claiming that such talks would lead them nowhere. Negotiations between the two countries have long been stalled over the international sanctions imposed on the nuclear-armed state and what North Korea should give up in return for having them lifted.

(Image: AP )