A U.S. federal court has sentenced a Chinese national illegally living in the U.S. to eight years in prison for conspiring with North Korean officials to smuggle weapons to the country, prosecutors said Monday.

Shenghua Wen, 42, received a 96-month sentence after pleading guilty in June to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.

Wen, who has been in custody since December last year, admitted that he worked at the direction of North Korean officials who