The U.S. Coast Guard reportedly said that a North Korean vessel seized by the United States for alleged sanctions violations has been sold and towed from American Samoa.

According to the Associated Press on Wednesday, the Coast Guard said in a news release that the Wise Honest left American Samoa because it was sold under the orders of federal judges. The Coast Guard, however, did not disclose the purchaser or other details. 

The Wise Honest, previously one of North Korea's largest bulk carriers, was seized by the U.S. in May after it was detained by Indonesian authorities in 2018 for allegedly transferring coal and machinery in violation of UN sanctions on the regime. 

The ship had since been docked in American Samoa.

The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died days after being released from detainment in North Korea in a vegetative state in 2017, had filed a claim for the ship.

[Photo : YONHAP News]