The US Justice Department on 9 May confirmed that US forces had detained a vessel that had allegedly been shipping coal from North Korea in violation of US sanctions and UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korea has complained to the United Nations about the recent seizure of its cargo ship by the United States in an «outrageous and unlawful» move, the DPRK’s Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday.
«Mr. Secretary General, I address this letter to you with regard to the incident of dispossession of the cargo ship ‘Wise Honest’ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),» Kim Song, Pyongyang’s permanent representative to the United Nations, wrote in a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres.
«… This act of dispossession has clearly indicated that the United States is indeed a gangster country that does not care at all about international laws,» he concluded, urging Guterres to take «urgent measures».
Earlier in May, the US government detained the North Korean bulk carrier Wise Honest and towed it to a port in American Samoa, claiming that the vessel had been illegally shipping coal from, and heavy machinery to, North Korea in violation of US and UN sanctions.
