{"id":299301,"date":"2019-05-13T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=299301"},"modified":"2019-05-13T06:00:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T20:00:27","slug":"n-korean-cargo-ship-seized-by-us-arrives-in-a-samoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/n-korean-cargo-ship-seized-by-us-arrives-in-a-samoa\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean cargo ship seized by US arrives in A. Samoa"},"content":{"rendered":"

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa<\/strong> (AP)\u2014A North Korean cargo ship seized by the U.S. because of suspicion it was used to violate international sanctions arrived Saturday at the capital of this American territory, where it will undergo inspections.<\/p>\n

The Wise Honest was slowly towed to the port of Pago Pago during a cloudy Saturday morning and docked at the main docking section of the port that afternoon.<\/p>\n

The trip from Indonesia took about three weeks and American Samoa, in the South Pacific, was chosen because of \u201cits central strategic location,\u201d U.S. Coast Guard public affairs officer Amanda Wyrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a good strong relationship and partnership with the American Samoan government,\u201d Wyrick said. \u201cWith that being said, we also already have the resources that are able to ensure the security of the vessel but most importantly the Port of Pago Pago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ship was detained in April 2018 as it traveled toward Indonesia. Justice Department officials announced Thursday that the U.S. had seized the ship.<\/p>\n

Asked as to how long the ship will be in the territory, Wyrick said the U.S. Department of Justice is \u201cleading the investigation so they will be conducting that. Upon the conclusion of the investigation, the ship will be moved.\u201d But the next destination is unknown, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know that Justice Department is going to do the investigation as fast as they can,\u201d Wyrick added.<\/p>\n

She said she didn\u2019t have the exact number of U.S. Coast Guard personnel or people from other federal agencies who have traveled to American Samoa for the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know that, we have a marine and safety security team here from Honolulu,\u201d Wyrick said. \u201cWe\u2019re conducting random patrols, also conducting inspection of the vessel and the Port of Pago Pago, keep an eye on things such as security breaches or vandalization of the ship itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials are also making sure the port is protected, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe especially in the Coast Guard, we understand the importance of the port. It\u2019s a lifeline in getting goods to the islands,\u201d Wyrick said. \u201cSo we want to make sure that we\u2019re doing everything we can, to make sure that there\u2019s absolutely no disruption to the flow of commerce coming in and out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. government dispatched to the territory an inspection team to the ship before it docked in Pago Pago, she said. Wyrick noted there was an inspection conducted before leaving Indonesia and, because the ship has been at sea for three weeks, \u201cit\u2019s subject to the elements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inspection of the ship before entering the harbor is to make sure the structure integrity of the boat is still intact. In that way, once we get the thumps up, and the green light, and the inspectors deem it safe, then it will enter the port,\u201d Wyrick said.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials made the announcement of the ship\u2019s seizure hours after North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea, the second weapons launch in five days and a possible signal that stalled talks over its nuclear weapons program are in trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP)\u2014A North Korean cargo ship seized by the U.S. because of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":303056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[167,320],"class_list":["post-299301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pacific","tag-american-samoa","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}