Taiwanese court sentences ex-legislator’s son for illegal fuel transfers to North Korea

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The son of a former Taiwanese legislator has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for a scheme that illegally supplied thousands of tons of fuel oil to North Korea.

Huang Chung-wei was sentenced to 28 months in prison by the district court in the southern port city of Kaohsiung on Tuesday. Five others also received prison terms.

They were convicted of taking part in loading the fuel onto ships in Taiwan and making the transfers in collaboration with Kwek Kee Seng, a Singaporean businessman wanted by the U.S. whose whereabouts were unknown.

Such activity is a violation of Taiwan’s Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and other statutes. the court said.

Illegal transfers at sea are one of the few ways North Korea, an authoritarian dictatorship considered one of the world’s biggest violators of human rights, can obtain fuel because of strict United Nations sanctions against its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

While Taiwan is not a UN member at the insistence of North Korean ally China, it has pledged to follow all of the world body’s rulings on Pyongyang.

The case against Huang dates back to 2019, when he and Kwek allegedly purchased a fleet of tankers, loaded them with fuel and sent them to make the transfers.

North Korea is known to operate a “shadow fleet” of ships operating without active electronic identification equipment. However, U.S. intelligence agencies were able to track the transfers by satellite and provided the information to Kaohsiung investigators, the court said. .

Huang’s father was a member of Taiwan’s legislature for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. It wasn’t clear how much money he made from the scheme or whether he would appeal the sentence.