A US federal court has approved a request by prosecutors to sell off the Wise Honest, the North Korean cargo ship seized by the US government, and now anchored in Pago Pago Habor.
So reports the Voice of America (VOA) in a July 20 report.
It remains to be seen what response this will elicit from North Korea, which has been asking for the ship’s immediate return.
In a decision published on July 19, P. Kevin Castel, a judge at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, approved a request for the sale submitted to the court by federal prosecutors, also from the Southern District of New York, in accordance with an agreement reached with the parents of Otto Warmbier prior to the final judgment.
Otto Warmbier died after being repatriated to the US following a long detention in North Korea, and his parents sued the North Korean government in an American court for damages, on the grounds that Pyongyang was to blame for their son’s death.
After the court awarded the parents $500 million, they argued that they should be given ownership of the Wise Honest as a form of remedy.
In effect, that’s exactly what the court’s decision does. An expert quoted by the VOA estimated that the sale of the ship would produce residual value of $1.5-3 million.
The US Government seized the Wise Earnest, citing domestic law, on May 9.
Five days later, on May 14, the North Korean government responded by issuing a statement signed by the spokesperson of its Foreign Ministry. “The US should ponder what repercussions its daytime robbery will have on developments and return our ship without delay,” the statement said.
“With this action, the US is fully rejecting the fundamental spirit of the joint statement released by our two countries on June 12 in which we pledged to establish a new bilateral relationship.”
The Wise Honest was detained by the Indonesian authorities for allegedly violating UN sanctions on North Korea.
The ship was subsequently handed over to the US government, which has impounded it at the port of Pago Pago.
