Japanese Firms Raided for Selling Potential Biological Weapons Equipment to North Korea

Two trading houses were raided by Japanese police today on suspicion that the firms exported to North Korea a freeze dryer that could be used to manufacture biological weapons, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 13).

The dryers can be used to grow bacteria, according to AFP.

The raids took place in the Yamaguchi and Shimane prefectures. One of the companies involved is Seishin Trading Co., according to the Japan Broadcasting Corp. The name of the other company was not released.

The companies are suspected of shipping the equipment to North Korea via Taiwan, according to Asian news reports. Reports also indicate that 10 sites related to the companies are being raided for violations of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law in connection with the 2002 shipment.

Japanese law enforcement officials learned of the shipment after questioning North Korean recycling agents when they tried to ship stolen bicycles to their home nation (Agence France-Presse/TODAYonline.com, Feb. 17).

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Groups Aims to Delay Opening of Biological Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Two activist groups have asked a federal appeals court to delay the opening of a facility for testing dangerous biological agents at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today (see GSN, Feb. 22, 2005).

Tri-Valley CARES and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico say additional environmental assessment is needed before the opening of the facility, which is to study agents including anthrax, Q fever, botulism and plague.

The “deadly bioagents tested at this facility could escape to the environment through earthquake, fire, terrorist attack, sabotage, operator error or failure of the containment filters through which the air in the facility would be exhausted to the outside,” said lawyer Stephan Volker in papers filed with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The facility is scheduled to open in April. Lawrence Livermore has previously conducted biodefense research, but the new Biosafety Level 3 laboratory would enable research on more dangerous agents.

The groups are appealing the 2004 ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong that the U.S. Energy Department could go forward with the laboratory.

Officials from the laboratory said they would oppose the lawsuit, which could “potentially delay the startup of important homeland security research.”

Laboratory officials said they believed Armstrong ruled correctly. “The same issues that were raised at the trial-court level — and rejected there — are being put forward again,” a laboratory statement said. “We believed then and continue to believe that (the judge's ruling) was a sound decision.”

Laboratory spokesman Steve Wampler said the facility would conduct research on countermeasures against biological weapons, not develop new weapons.

“The U.S. is a signatory to the (international) biowarfare convention and does not conduct bioweapons research,” he said.

Volker, however, maintained that “this kind of research actually has no clear demarcation between offensive and defensive weapons.” He argued that in the course of their research, scientists could unknowingly create new weapons that could be used by terrorists.

Laboratory security is also questionable, he added, citing occasions “where keys were lost (and) facilities were left exposed to potential theft of these kinds of materials.” Volker also said facility filters might not prevent the agents from escaping into the environment (Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 17).

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Organization Offers Treaty Implementation Support

By Chris Schneidmiller
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — A British organization is offering a helping hand to nations struggling to meet their obligations under nuclear and biological weapons nonproliferation treaties (see GSN, April 13, 2004).

The Verification, Research, Training and Information Center has prepared a manual of training materials on national laws and regulations required to comply with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and Biological Weapons Convention. The organization is “road-testing” the material in a series of seminars, after which it plans to offer the finished document to interested nations.

“Many states … haven’t necessarily been able to comply with their obligations because there just hasn’t been coordinated assistance available,” said Angela Woodward, VERTIC deputy director.   “Many states are perhaps still unaware of the extent of their obligations, or are faced with a blank page, not quite knowing where to start or where to seek assistance.”

Inadequate domestic laws can hamstring a nation’s efforts to investigate and prosecute illicit WMD activity within its borders, said Richard Guthrie, chemical and biological warfare project leader for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.   Without regulations, for example, producing anthrax might not be considered illegal under any circumstances.

Conversely, putting rules into place strengthens officials’ abilities to control potential weapons ingredients, and increases other countries’ confidence about sharing research materials.

Assistance of the sort offered by VERTIC could be crucial for states with limited experience in dealing with nonproliferation treaties, Guthrie said. That might be particularly true for the Biological Weapons Convention, as there are legitimate purposes for working with materials covered by the pact. Guthrie noted as one example research into natural anthrax infections that kill cattle and damage the economy. Rules must be very precise about what sort of work is allowed and who has access to dangerous materials, he said.

“It is very valuable to have assistance. A lot of these legal issues and procedures for national implementation are quite detailed and hard to get your head around,” said Guthrie, who worked at VERTIC from 1989 to 1996 but has no connection to this project. “If you don’t know where to start, you might say, ‘I think I’ll let that drop down to the end tray.’”

The VERTIC project grew out of a survey the organization conducted over 18 months in 2002 and 2003 to determine how many Biological Weapons Convention member states had taken internal measures required by the treaty to prohibit the development, production and stockpiling of banned agents and weapons materials. 

Using the survey and open-source material, VERTIC researchers compiled information on 95 of the then-151 treaty states parties. The organization did not receive survey responses from 71 percent of BWC states parties in Africa, while 42 percent of treaty members in Asia and 25 percent in Oceania also remained silent.

This indicated many nations and whole regions were without the required rules. Leaders might not be aware of the treaty requirements, or believe that biological weapons are not an issue in their country, Woodward said.

There were other questions as well, such as whether the nations working toward compliance were including all treaty prohibitions in their legislation and whether their territories were covered by the rules. “The legislation that we obtained was oftentimes just the name of the legislation or a summary of what it was about,” Woodward said.

The organization published its study on national legislation in November 2003, timed to appear alongside a meeting of Biological Weapons Convention states parties on the issue. Delegates left the meeting without offering any specific recommendations for improved treaty implementation (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2003).

Passage in April 2004 of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540 highlighted nations’ responsibilities in addressing the dangers of weapons of mass destruction. The resolution requires U.N. nations to adopt laws and domestic measures to prevent the spread of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

States were faced with new obligations that many were not prepared to meet. VERTIC received more than $150,000 from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Global Opportunities Fund in hopes of helping to bridge that gap.

The organization decided to focus its attention on the nuclear and biological arms treaties, along with the segments of Resolution 1540 covering those weapons, where support resources were limited for nations trying to come into line with regulations.

There is no verification body for the Biological Weapons Convention that could offer such aid, Woodward said. The International Atomic Energy Agency oversees compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but traditionally has not provided implementation assistance to nations, she said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog offers legislative and technical assistance, along with seminars to help states implement the agency’s safeguards agreements and Additional Protocols, according to IAEA documents.

The Biological Weapons Convention requires members “to take any necessary measures to prohibit and prevent the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition, or retention of the agents, toxins, weapons, equipment and means of delivery” prohibited by the treaty. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty bans any action that would constitute proliferation and calls on member states to accept IAEA safeguards over their nuclear programs.

Neither pact calls for specific national laws or regulations. Across the spectrum of arms control and disarmament treaties, national implementation measures generally include penal legislation to criminalize prohibited acts, export and import controls and other measures, according to Woodward.

The manual is to contain basic information on the treaties and the obligations of state parties, checklists of requirements to be included in legislation and a model Biological Weapons Convention law to assist nations in developing their measures under that treaty. There will be no model NPT law, as treaty requirements are best implemented by multiple pieces of legislation, Woodward said.

Included on a CD-ROM are the text of both treaties and Resolution 1540, documents from treaty meetings and some material also found in the hard copy of the document.

“It gives the legislator a precise idea of what exactly he is supposed to do and when exactly he is supposed to do it,” Andreas Persbo, VERTIC nuclear arms control and disarmament researcher, said of the manual.

The VERTIC manual also aims to include legislative-implementation material previously prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the monitoring bodies for the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The organization conducted a seminar in November in which a small group of government officials, NGO representatives and academics were asked to evaluate the manual. The document received good marks, with the most significant recommendation being to change the presentation of the nuclear section for clarity.

“The nuclear materials participants did say that it’s the first time they have seen all the nuclear obligations listed in such a way that they thought it’s doable,” Persbo said.

Now under way is a series of seminars for diplomats in New York, Vienna and Geneva, with regional workshops aimed at relevant government officials tentatively scheduled for the Middle East in April and Southeast Asia in June.

The seminars would serve to raise awareness of the obligations under the nonproliferation treaties and Resolution 1540, and to promote the resources available from VERTIC and other entities, Woodward said. Copies of the manual would then be sent to policy-makers and government officials.

Accepting support from an independent organization could be more politically acceptable than receiving it from another nation, Guthrie said.   Opposition lawmakers who might wonder why their government must go hat-in-hand to a country such as the United States are less likely to raise objections to simply seeking expert advice.

An official with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said he was not familiar with the VERTIC project, but that the organization would welcome support in promoting nonproliferation. All 10 ASEAN member nations belong to the Biological Weapons Convention and Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but Termsak Chalermpalanupap did not say by e-mail how many are still trying to develop their domestic implementation measures.

 “Certainly we welcome projects that promote nonproliferation of all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear disarmament,” said Chalermpalanupap, special assistant to the ASEAN secretary general. 

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Iran Using Uranium in Centrifuges

Iran today announced that it has introduced uranium hexafluoride into centrifuges for enrichment, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 16).

“Yes, we have injected UF6 gas into a limited number of centrifuge machines, but it is even less than what is needed for a pilot project,” said Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

“To get enriched uranium with 3.5 percent purity, you need to employ 164 machines, and I should say we are not at that stage yet. It could take several months for us to reach that point,” he said (Agence France-Presse I/IranMania.com, Feb. 16).

Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has warned that it would be difficult to reach a negotiated solution on Iran’s nuclear program that did not include allowing Tehran to conduct small-scale enrichment work, diplomats told AFP.

ElBaradei has discussed such a compromise with the United States and other agency governing board members, but the United States and the European Union have balked at the possibility, AFP reported.

“Some board delegations ElBaradei spoke to were literally speechless that the director general of the IAEA would advocate allowing a serial safeguards violator like Iran to master centrifuge operations,” a Western diplomat said.

“At the end of the day, the West is going to have to accept a pilot plant,” said another Western diplomat.

Analyst and former U.S. nonproliferation official Gary Samore, however, said allowing Iran to conduct limited enrichment was “not a practical option.”

“Iran is not interested in a deal. Iran’s interest is in getting its weapons option,” he said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Feb. 17).

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said yesterday that there remains no conclusive evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, AFP reported.

“There are strong suspicions internationally that it may be seeking to use its nuclear program in order to develop a weapons capability,” Straw said.

“I have said before and I will say again: We do not have absolute proof, we do not have conclusive evidence of this. There are strong suspicions,” he added.

Asked, however, about French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy’s statement yesterday calling Iran’s nuclear program a “military” project, Straw said he shared that view (Agence France-Presse III/IranMania.com, Feb. 16).

Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani rejected Douste-Blazy’s claim, the Washington Post reported today. “We want civilian nuclear energy,” he said. “We don’t want to have the bomb.”

Iranian officials have begun rallying the public in support of the regime if international sanctions are applied, the Post reported.

“The Iranian nation is brave enough to stand against any threats posed by the enemies,” Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi yesterday told military volunteers. “If the enemies resort to the language of force in dealing with the Iranian nation, there is no doubt they will face strong reaction from our nation.”

Iran is also seeking support from foreign governments, according to the Post. Iran’s charge d’affaires in Beijing, Farhad Assadi, highlighted the importance of ties between China and Iran in a statement published in the China Daily (Molly Moore, Washington Post, Feb. 17).

Iranian parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel yesterday played down the possibility of a U.S. strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Reuters reported.

“We believe it is almost impossible that the United States would want to repeat the experience of Iraq,” he said. “We hope the United States is not so stupid” (Anthony Boadle, Reuters I, Feb. 16).

Elsewhere, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted 404-4 in favor of a resolution condemning Iran’s resumption of uranium enrichment, AFP reported.

“Protecting American citizens from terrorism means keeping a watchful eye on nations like Iran,” said House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

“The Iranian government has blatantly ignored its international obligations and the Paris Agreement and instead headed down a path of dangerous, deadly destruction,” Hastert said. “With this resolution, we let the Iranian government know that its nuclear ambitions are simply unacceptable” (Agence France-Presse IV/Yahoo!News, Feb. 16).

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit Arab countries next week to lobby for pressure against Iran, Reuters reported yesterday.

“We will not be able to address the Iranian nuclear program and problem in a vacuum,” Rice told U.S. lawmakers at a hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill. “It is Iran’s regional policies that really are concerning, as we watch them, with their sidekick Syria, destabilizing places like Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and, indeed, even in southern Iraq.”

Rice plans to travel to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“What the secretary would like to do is broaden that international discussion and discuss with the Arab countries, who obviously have a lot of concerns about Iran, not just the nuclear issue but the terrorism issue,” said a senior Bush administration official (Reuters II/Yahoo!News, Feb. 16).

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France, India Close to Nuclear Agreement

French President Jacques Chirac said a nuclear technology sharing agreement between France and India is close to becoming reality, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 15).

“France was the first country to argue at international level in favor of India, as a responsible power, gaining access to civilian nuclear technologies,” Chirac said in an interview with India Today magazine, published today.

The French president added that U.S. support would improve chances of an agreement being reached.

“We are close to reaching an agreement but more work is required on both sides,” he said (Associated Press, Feb. 17).

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Other Countries Dismiss North Korean Claims That U.S. Sanctions Hold Up Nuclear Talks, Rice Says

North Korea’s claim that U.S. financial sanctions are delaying multilateral nuclear talks is not gaining support from other countries involved in the negotiations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a congressional panel yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 14).

“The North Koreans are getting very little traction with other states with the argument that that’s the reason they won’t go back to six-party talks,” Rice told the House International Relations Committee.

“It is our hope that the North Koreans will come back and come back seriously,” she said. “We’re ready.”

“It’s simply the responsibility of the United States government to pursue these measures if someone is trying to counterfeit our currency,” Rice said.

Meanwhile, Robert Werner, director of the Treasury Department’s Foreign Assets Control Office, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that U.S. financial regulatory actions are disrupting efforts by North Korean and Iranian companies to support their countries’ nuclear programs.

“We target not only the missile or bomb maker, but the procurement fronts, the brokers and middlemen, the logistical apparatus used to move dangerous weapons to market and the financiers,” he said (Foster Klug, Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 17).

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U.S. Tests Minuteman

The U.S. Air Force yesterday conducted a successful test of an unarmed Minuteman 3 ICBM, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 14, 2005).

The missile took off at 12:01 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and hit a target 4,800 miles away on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. 

The purpose of the test was to gather data and to determine whether the Mark 2 re-entry vehicle was effective on the Minuteman, Air Force officials said.

The United States has approximately 500 Minuteman missiles deployed in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to AP (Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 16).

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Bids Sought to Manage Nuclear Lab

The U.S. Energy Department is seeking bids for the contract to manage the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, May 25, 2004).

Battelle Memorial Institute has operated the facility since it opened in 1965, according to AP, and its current five-year contract expires Sept. 30, 2007. The nonprofit organization plans to bid for the new contract, said Bill Madia, Battelle executive vice president for laboratory operations.

More than half of the laboratory’s work is conducted for the Energy Department. It also does research for the Homeland Security and Defense departments, other federal agencies and private concerns.

A research error involving cleanup of the contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation resulted in recent criticism of the company, AP reported (Shannon Dininny, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 17).

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Venezuela Forms Commission to Implement CWC

Venezuela is expected today to form a presidential committee to coordinate government efforts to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention and communicate with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, El Universal reported (see GSN, Feb. 3; El Universal, Feb. 16).

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Poland, NATO Hold Missile Defense Talks

Polish and NATO officials met yesterday to discuss development of an antiballistic missile system, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 6, 2005).

“Poland plays an important role in discussions with the alliance on missile defense,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after meeting in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

Poland has conducted similar talks with the United States. A missile interceptor site in Poland could protect both the United States and Europe against missiles coming from the Middle East and North Africa, a senior U.S. defense official said last year (Agence France-Presse/DefenseNews.com, Feb. 16).

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