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Chan Han Choi has pleaded guilty to two charges of contravening United Nations and Australian sanctions
Chan Han Choi, who has admitted to being involved in arms deals with North Korea, leaves the King Street supreme court in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Chan Han Choi, who has admitted to being involved in arms deals with North Korea, leaves the King Street supreme court in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
AustralianAssociatedPress
Tue 9 Feb 2021 21.33 EST
Last modified on Tue 9 Feb 2021 22.11 EST
A Sydney civil engineer has admitted brokering deals to help North Korea export arms in breach of global sanctions.
A jury has been discharged after Chan Han Choi pleaded guilty to two charges in the NSW Supreme Court for brokering deals to help North Korea export arms.
“He regularly communicates with people who – on the crown case – are from North Korea,” Single said.
Choi had brokered past deals on behalf of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that weren’t illegal but they “showed he did in fact have ties to North Kore”, the prosecutor said.
Discussion about exporting missiles allegedly involved Choi talking of building a nursery of trees in Taiwan. The crown alleges that was a reference to the creation of a missile establishment on the island nation.
Choi also spoke of a tactical inertial measurement unit – a piece of navigational equipment the crown said had “no practical commercial or civil use”. “Its only use is in rugged, military environments,” Single said.