Chinese national in US charged with illegally shipping arms to North Korea

A Chinese national living in California has been arrested and charged with illegally shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea, authorities said on Tuesday.

Shenghua Wen, who arrived in the US from China on a student visa more than a decade ago and stayed in the country illegally, was arrested and charged with conspiring to violate federal law barring the shipments, according to the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

It was not immediately known whether Wen, who is 41 and lives in Ontario, California, had a lawyer. He is expected to appear in court later on Tuesday.

“It is essential that we protect our country from hostile foreign states that have adverse interests to our nation,” Martin Estrada, US Attorney in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

According to a copy of a federal complaint, Wen told US authorities in interviews earlier this year that he had exported weapons and ammunition to North Korea at the request of its government.

He said he met with North Korean officials at consular offices in China before he came to the US on a student visa in 2012, the complaint said.