WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted two North Korean shipping companies that operated a ship seized by Panama last year for carrying undeclared military equipment from Cuba.
The department announced Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on the Chongchongang Shipping Company, which owned the ship. It also sanctioned Ocean Maritime Management Company, which allegedly provided the ship’s captain and crew with instructions to conceal the weapons and provide false documentation.
Panamanian authorities stopped the ship, Chong Chon Gang, in July 2013, as it tried to enter the Panama Canal. They found two Cuban fighter jets, missiles and live munitions beneath its cargo of sugar.
The U.N. blacklisted the Pyongyang-headquartered Ocean Maritime Management Company on Monday.
