Moon Chul-myeong, the first North Korean repatriated to the US, attends court… “Linking to the Reconnaissance Office”

At the North Korean embassy in Lasia on the weekend of the 21st, people who are believed to be embassy employees are moving boxes. North Korea withdrew from the embassy in opposition to Malaysia’s repatriation of Moon Chul-myeong to the United States. AP=Yonhap News

Moon Cheol-myung, the first North Korean to stand before a US court, was present in Washington DC court on the 22nd (local time), the US Department of Justice said. The US took over Moon Chul-myeong from Malaysia on charges such as money laundering.

On that day, the US Department of Justice announced in a press release, “This is the first case of North Korean citizens delivered to the United States.” At the same time, from April 2013 to November 2018, Moon was laundered over 1.5 million dollars (about 1.7 billion won) in violation of sanctions against North Korea by the United States and the United Nations (UN) as a method of fraudulently accessing the U.S. financial system with an accomplice. He said he was involved in.

In addition, the US Department of Justice’s position is that the reason Moon Cheol-myeong linked up with the North Korean reconnaissance office to launder money was to provide luxury goods to North Korea. The Ministry of Justice said that the Minneapolis Bureau of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the FBI counterintelligence cooperated in the investigation of the Moon case, and expressed appreciation for the support to the US Indo-Pacific Command. This is a point that emphasizes the involvement of various agencies in the repatriation of Moon Cheol-myeong to the United States.

“Moon Chul-myeong is accused of cheating banks and laundering money to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Nations against North Korea,” said John Demus, assistant secretary of national security at the Ministry of Justice. “We are protecting Americans from sanctions evasion and other national security threats. “We will continue to use the law broadly to protect it.”

US Department of Justice press release. [법무부 홈페이지 캡처]

North Korea is opposed to Moon’s repatriation to the United States. On the afternoon of the afternoon of the 21st, about 30 North Koreans, including North Korean embassy staff and their families, withdrew from Malaysia via a passenger plane bound for Shanghai, China.

Deputy spokesman Jelina Porter of the US State Department responded to North Korea’s opposition, saying, “The United States is committed to the denuclearization of North Korea,” when asked about US-North Korea relations at the briefing.

Reporter Oh Won-seok [email protected]