North Korea shipments to Syria chemical arms agency intercepted,
says UN
By Michelle Nichols
Aug 22nd 2017 8:57AM
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Two North Korean shipments to
a Syrian government agency responsible for the country's chemical
weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according
to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions
violations.
The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts, which was
submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen
by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the
interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained.
"The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical,
ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria
and the DPRK (North Korea)," the experts wrote in the 37-page
report.
"Two member states interdicted shipments destined for Syria. Another
Member state informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the
goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria," according to the
report.
KOMID is the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation. It was
blacklisted by the Security Council in 2009 and described as Pyongyang's
key arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles
and conventional weapons. In March 2016 the council also blacklisted two
KOMID representatives in Syria.
"The consignees were Syrian entities designated by the European Union
and the United States as front companies for Syria's Scientific Studies
and Research Centre (SSRC), a Syrian entity identified by the Panel as
cooperating with KOMID in previous prohibited item transfers," the U.N.
experts wrote.
SSRC has overseen the country's chemical weapons program since the
1970s.
The U.N. experts said activities between Syria and North Korea they
were investigating included cooperation on Syrian Scud missile programs
and maintenance and repair of Syrian surface-to-air missiles air defense
systems.
The North Korean and Syrian missions to the United Nations did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
The experts said they were also investigating the use of the VX nerve
agent in Malaysia to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korea's
leader Kim Jong Un in February.
North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its
ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has
ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and
four long-range missile launches.
Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal
brokered by Russia and the United States. However, diplomats and weapons
inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new
chemical weapons capability.
During the country's more than six-year long civil war the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said the banned
nerve agent sarin has been used at least twice, while the use of
cholorine as a weapon has been widespread. The Syrian government has
repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.
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