Seoul was reportedly unable to enlighten members of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea who flew to Seoul this month to inquire what South Korea knows about North Korea's weapons program.

They met Foreign Ministry officials here after asking the South Korean Defense Ministry last month for information about North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missiles and biochemical weapons.

According to internal Defense Ministry documents the Chosun Ilbo obtained on Monday, the UNSC committee members sent a questionnaire on the North's SLBMs and biochemical weapons to the ministry in September.

It included questions such as how many subs the North is capable of building at a new facility under construction at Sinpo port, and whether there is a possibility of the new facility becoming a dock for SLBM subs. It also inquired what Seoul believes the cost to be.

"Another question asked about the possibility of SLBMs being tipped with biochemical warheads," a military spokesman said. "It seemed that they were particularly interested in biochemical weapons, which had been overlooked compared to missiles and nuclear weapons that could pose a direct threat to the U.S."

The Defense Ministry held a meeting to discuss how to answer the questions and concluded it was unable to offer any more information than had already been reported in the media. "It seems that the ministry's answers were unsatisfactory," a diplomatic source said.

