Mun Chol-myong, who has lived in the South East Asian country for a decade with his wife and two daughters, was arrested in May.
The 54-year-old is facing five counts of money-laundering in the United States. Prosecutors said the charges relate to the trade in luxury goods, including liquor, to North Korea. North Korea has been hit with repeated rounds of crippling sanctions – imposed by the United Nations and countries such as the United States – over its nuclear-weapons programme.Mun has been in custody since his arrest and last month a judge rejected a bail application, saying he was a flight risk.
At a procedural hearing Thursday, lawyer Jagjit Singh again argued Mun should be released on bail and complained prosecutors had not shared documents from US officials with the defence. "It is not a violent offence... It is only money-laundering offence not terrorism related," he told the court.But the judge rejected the request for Mun's release and set the next hearing for July 12.Prosecutor Faizul Aswad Masri said the offences allegedly happened between 2014 and 2017, and involved"controlled items which cannot be exported to North Korea".