North Korea chemical shipments to Syria intercepted: UN report

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Two chemical weapons shipments from North Korea to a Syrian government agency were stopped in the past six months, a confidential United Nations report revealed.

The report was prepared by a panel of independent UN experts and submitted to the UN Security Council earlier this month, Reuters reported.

“The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile, and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and [North Korea],” the experts wrote in the 37-page report.

The report noted that “two member states interdicted shipments destined for Syria,” but gave no details on when or where the interceptions occurred or what the shipments contained.

“Another member state informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria,” the report added.

The Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), blacklisted by the Security Council in 2009, was believed to be a key arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

According to the report, “Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) [was] identified by the Panel as cooperating with KOMID in previously prohibited item transfers.”

The UN experts said those who approved the shipment were “Syrian entities designated by the European Union and the United States as front companies for [the SSRC].”

The SSRC has overseen the country’s chemical weapons program since the 1970s, Reuters reported.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Syria, on the other hand, had agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the US.

However, the Syrian government is suspected of having used chemical weapons during the country’s six-year-long civil war.

Editing by G.H. Renaud