American authorities arrested a father and son, originally from Taiwan, for allegedly trying to sell machinery and goods to North Korea that can be used to make weapons of mass destruction.

67-year old Alex Tsai was arrested in Estonia.  His son, 36-year old Gary Tsai, was arrested at his home in a suburb of Chicago.  The judge allowed the younger Tsai to be released on bail but to wear an electronic monitoring anklet.

Father and son were each charged with a single count of conspiring to defraud the United States in its enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and one count of money laundering.

Gary Tsai’s American lawyer says he sent some old machinery to his father, not parts to create WMD.  However, the feds say the elder Tsai is a proliferator of WMD.