DETERIORATION

North Korea Calls U.S. Seizure of Ship ‘Unlawful Robbery,’ Demands Its Return

The U.S. first detained the vessel last year; on Saturday, the ship arrived in American Samoa.

North Korea has called the U.S. seizure of its cargo ship last year an “unlawful robbery” and demanded that it be returned, the Associated Press reports. U.S. officials first detained the Wise Honest, which was reportedly used to transport banned coal exports, in April 2018 as the vessel headed toward Indonesia. On Saturday, the ship arrived in American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the south central Pacific. An unnamed foreign ministry spokesman accused the U.S. of violating the spirit of an agreement made between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the 2018 Singapore summit, where both parties favored a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and vowed to work toward bilateral ties. Their second meeting in Hanoi in February deteriorated when neither could agree on sanctions relief and disarmament.