Global Security Newswire

Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, welcomes North Korean ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam to Syria upon his arrival for a 2002 visit. The United Nations reportedly plans to investigate North Korea's 2009 attempt to transfer to Syria reagents with chemical weapons applications (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency).

The United Nations intends to probe a fall 2009 attempt by North Korea to provide Syria with reagents have uses in chemical weapons strikes, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Friday (see GSN, Nov. 17, 2011).

Greece in November 2009 confiscated a storage vessel discovered on a Liberia-flagged ship bound for Syria. The container was revealed to be filled with large quantities of ampules carrying powdered or liquid reagents, informed insiders said. The type of reagents found can be employed to detect materials moving in the air following a chemical arms strike, according to the insiders. The materials have both offensive and defensive purposes, they said.

Also confiscated from the freighter were some 14,000 chemical weapon-protection outfits. The gear matched other military-grade suits confiscated by South Korean officials in September 2009.

The U.N. Security Council in June 2009 approved a resolution prohibiting all North Korean exports of weapons and associated items.

Last September, Athens notified the Security Council panel that monitors enforcement of sanctions against North Korea of its seizure of the reagent and defense gear.

Both North Korea and Syria are thought to hold significant stocks of chemical warfare materials and remain outside of the international accord intended to deter the development, production, stockpiling and use of such agents.

The two nations are broadly seen to have collaborated on several weapons-related initiatives, including construction of a suspected nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel in 2007 before it could begin operations, the newspaper reported. While a vast amount of attention has been given to Pyongyang's attempts to proliferate its nuclear weapons and missile technology, investigations into potential chemical weapon-related exports are much less frequent, Yomiuri reported (Michinobu Yanagisawa, Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 6).