UN report confirms North Korea shipments to Syria chemical program

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A United Nations (UN) report on North Korea sanctions violations concluded that the regime at Pyongyang effectuated two shipments to the Syrian chemical weapons program government agency, according to Reuters.

The 37-page document was submitted by a panel of independent experts earlier July.

Details about where and when the shipments took place or what they contained were not given in the report.

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According to the report, shipments took place between Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), a state company blacklisted by the Security Council in 2009 and described as Pyongyang’s key exporter of arms and equipment related to ballistic missiles, and Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), an entity which has overseen the country’s chemical weapons program since the 1970s.

The North Korean and Syrian missions to the UN are yet to comment the panel’s conclusion.

North Korea is one of three countries not signing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an international treaty outlawing manufacturing, use and stockpiling of such weapons of mass destruction, effective since 1997. The other two are Egypt and South Sudan.

Syria agreed in September 2013 upon yielding their chemical weapons into international supervision and began the destruction process in October 2013, after acceding to the CWC.

At the time Syria was facing incoming sanctions following the August 2013 Ghouta chemical attacks.

However, in on April 4, 2017, a sarin attack took place in rebel-held Khan Shaykhun, northwest of the country, with more than 100 killed and 550 injured. Western powers claim Assad regime is responsible.

The event triggered a response triggered the first direct US Government military action against the Assad regime.