The Telegraph: North Korea Attempted to Ship Material to Syria’s Chemical Weapons Agency, UN Experts Say

North Korea has twice attempted to ship chemical weapons to front companies for the Syrian government’s Scientific Studies and Research Center this year, according to a classified UN report. Two unnamed countries intercepted the shipments. “The shipments were sent by KOMID, the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation – an organisation blacklisted by the UN security council in 2009, and described as Pyongyang’s key arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons,” observes Harriet Alexander for the Telegraph. “The UN experts said activities between Syria and North Korea they were investigating included cooperation on Syrian Scud missile programmes.” Syria previously agreed to dismantle is chemical weapons program in 2013 and has consistently denied using weaponized chlorine or nerve gas. Still, weapons inspectors suspect that the government may be covertly developing “new chemical weapons capability.” – YaleGlobal