U.S. Offers $5-M For Singaporean Supplying Fuel To NoKor

The Biden administration is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information about a Singapore-based businessman already accused by the Justice Department of facilitating fuel shipments to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions, Eric Tucker reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Kwek Kee Seng

Kwek Kee Seng, who directs a shipping agency and terminal operations company, was charged last year with arranging the deliveries, with prosecutors alleging that he used front companies and false documentation to hide the scheme.

Officials say that business helps enable North Korea's nuclear proliferation programs.

Agence France-Press (AFP) also reported that federal prosecutors in New York in 2021 issued an arrest warrant for Kwek, a year after one of his oil tankers, the M/T Courageous, was seized by Cambodia on a US request over purported sanctions violations.

Kwek, 62, owns the Swanseas Port Services shipping company in Singapore, a close US ally. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program said his exact location was not known and that he has also been identified as being in North Korea, Cambodia, Taiwan and Thailand as well as Cameroon and the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The offer of a reward came amid heightened tensions with North Korea, which on Thursday fired at least six missiles into the sea, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan.

The Biden administration said in response to the launches that it is willing to take “all necessary measures” to ensure the safety of the American homeland as well as South Korea and Japan, and warned of unspecified “additional costs and consequences” if North Korea detonates a nuclear test device for the first time since September 2017.

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