'Chemical' Cooperation between Syria, North Korea revealed by UN Documents

Man with a child  seen in hospital in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus

North Korean authorities provided the Syrian regime with equipment that could be used to manufacture chemical weapons, according to secret UN documents obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat.

The report, prepared by UN experts and consisting of hundreds of pages, dedicated more than 15 paragraphs to transactions prohibited by international resolutions between Pyongyang and Damascus.

It noted that the United Nations Panel of Experts, which is working under Security Council Resolution 1718, has conducted numerous investigations into North Korean transfers to Syria of ballistic missiles, materials related to conventional weapons and dual-use goods.

The report pointed to the activities of several groups of North Korean ballistic missile technicians, as well as entities that are subject to sanctions in Syria.

It also said that there were more than 40 North Korea unreported shipments between 2012 and 2017 to the Council of Scientific Research in Syria, in the region of Jamraya.

The report revealed that some member-states seized goods that are believed to be part of a contract between the North Korean company KOMID and the interfaces of the Syrian Scientific Research Council.

These investigations highlighted important new evidence on North Korea’s ongoing sanctioned activities, as well as innovative evasion techniques, through the use of a dual system to validate the documents of the shipments and mask illegal activities.

The report details “substantial new evidence” about North Korea’s dealings with Syria, dating back to 2008. That year, North Korea’s Ryonhap-2 corporation was reportedly in a Syrian ballistic missile program.

Moreover, the over-200-page document recounted a visit to Syria by a technical delegation from North Korea in August 2016 “involved the transfer to Syria of special resistance valves and thermometers known for use in chemical weapons programs.”

Another visit by North Korean ballistic missile experts was conducted in November 2016. The delegation passed through Beijing and Dubai airports on its way to Damascus on a Syrian Arab Airlines flight, according to the report.

A member state was quoted in the UN report as saying that North Korean technicians “continue to operate at chemical weapons and missile facilities at Barzeh, Adra and Hama”.

The report included Syria’s reply to the panel about the information: “There are no [North Korean] technical companies in Syria and the only presence of some [North Korean] individuals are confined in the field of sports under private individual contracts for training athletics and gymnastics.”

Investigations by the UN panel showed that in many cases of unreported arms shipments and cooperation with front companies of entities placed under sanctions between 2010 and 2017, there is further evidence of violations of the arms embargo and other breaches, through the transfer of products used in the manufacture of ballistic missiles and weapons and in chemical programs.

The eight experts forming the UN panel come from different countries and have specific expertise in areas such as weapons of mass destruction, maritime transport and customs controls.

The report includes copies of contracts between North Korean and Syrian companies as well as bills of lading indicating the types of materials shipped.

Although experts, who read the report, said that the evidence it cited did not prove conclusively that there was ongoing and continuous cooperation between North Korea and Syria on chemical weapons, they said it did deliver the most detailed account to date of the two countries’ efforts to evade sanctions intended to restrain their military expansion.