Japan indicts two over PC exports to North Korea

Japanese prosecutors have indicted two people over alleged exports of personal computers to North Korea, Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday.

The two are accused of exporting 8.2 million yen (US$108,000) worth of computers from Japan in violation of the Japanese government’s trade sanctions. Japan has imposed a complete ban on exports to North Korea since June 2009.

The computers were allegedly sent to the Korea Computer Center, the Pyongyang-based computer research center.

An earlier report by Sankei Biz said the computers were shipped in July and December of 2010 under falsified papers that claimed they were heading to Shenyang, China, and Seoul. The shipment contained about 710 used PCs and monitors, the newspaper said.

Indicted were Lee Mun Ryang, a 61 year-old from Nagoya, and Kaoru Morino, a 44 year-old from Tokyo. Kyodo said Japanese prosecutors quoted both Lee and Morino as saying they knew the PCs would end up in Pyongyang.

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