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An image of the North Korean cargo ship Wise Honest docked at the port of Pago Pago

After the US government seized the North Korean cargo ship Wise Honest on charges of violating sanctions, the North demanded that the ship’s immediate return, describing the seizure as an “unlawful and outrageous act” of dispossession. That was the first reaction from North Korea after the US Department of Justice publicly announced the seizure of the Wise Honest on May 9, alleging that the ship had violated UN Security Council resolutions, and initiated the procedures for confiscating the ship altogether.

On May 14, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported a statement released by a spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry. “The United States committed an unlawful and outrageous act of dispossessing our cargo ship by forcibly taking it to Samoa (US), linking the ship to the ‘sanctions resolutions’ of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and its domestic ‘sanctions acts,’ all being imposed against the DPRK [North Korea],” the statement read.

“The latest US act constitutes an extension of the American method of calculation for bringing the DPRK to its knees by means of ‘maximum pressure,’” the statement contended.

According to the statement, the US’ steps to seize and confiscate the North Korean cargo ship are “an outright denial of the underlying spirit of the June 12 DPRK-US Joint Statement that has committed to establish new bilateral relations.”

“The US should ponder over the consequences its heinous act might have on the future developments and immediately return our ship,” the statement emphasized, before ending with a warning: “We will carefully watch every move of the United States hereafter.

Even though North Korea expressed its criticism of the US in the relatively formal mode of a statement by the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, experts see this as a comparatively moderate response to the unprecedented step of the seizure and confiscation of one of its ships.

“At a time when even a conciliatory message [from the US] to create the mood for dialogue wouldn’t satisfy North Korea, the US has held joint exercises with South Korea and then gone ahead and seized a ship. The North made these remarks to send a warning that it won’t just sit by and allow this to continue. But this was quite tame as far as such warnings go,” said Hong Min, director of the North Korea research office at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

This is seen as being consistent with North Korea’s choice not to cross any red lines despite recently pressuring the US through low-level shows of force. Since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stated in a policy speech last month that he would give the US until the end of the year to make a bold decision, the North is keeping open the possibility of dialogue. But if relations between North Korea and the US deteriorate, North Korea could aggressively try to make an issue of the ship’s seizure.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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