More than 100 tonnes of a toxic chemical that can be used to make weapons of mass destruction were exported to North Korea by a South Korean businessman via China, the government said yesterday.
South Korea's Ministry of Commerce said the businessman exported 107 tonnes of sodium cyanide between June and September last year to an importer in Dandong, China, on the border with North Korea, without government approval.
The unidentified Chinese company re-exported the shipment to a North Korean trading firm, the ministry said in a statement.
Sodium cyanide is known as a dual-use chemical, one with important applications in various industries that include mining, where it is used as an agent to extract gold and silver and other precious metals from their ore.
But the chemical has a secondary and more sinister application as a precursor to lethal chemical weapons. Used against humans, nerve gas and blood agents produced by the chemical are known to cause agonizing death within minutes.
Because of the dual use, sodium cyanide is subject to multilateral export control regimes to which South Korea is a signatory. Following the admission, officials said oversight would be tightened to prevent further illegal exports.
"We are working on comprehensive measures to stop the loopholes in regulations aimed at preventing illegal exports of strategic materials," commerce ministry director Seo Young-Joo said.
The ministry said it first learned about the illegal shipments in October last year, the same month it reported the South Korean businessman to prosecutors.
The unidentified businessman received a jail sentence of 18 months suspended for two years in January.
The ministry said authorities were also checking a report that a Malaysian company exported 40 tonnes of the same chemical, 15 tonnes of which originated in South Korea, to North Korea last month.
Experts caution that little is known in detail about North Korea's chemical weapons capabilities because the Stalinist state shrouds them in secrecy.
However, North Korean chemical and biological weapons programs date back several decades, when they were seen as a cheap and easy route to acquiring weapons of mass destruction, according to South Korea's defense ministry.
The communist state has developed bulk quantities of nerve, blister, choking and blood agents, creating one of the world's biggest stockpiles of chemical weapons, according to US and South Korean intelligence sources.
Pyongyang embarked on biological weapons development in the early 1980s. The country has also boasted of a nuclear deterrent force, and Washington believes it has developed a small number of nuclear devices.
South Korea has exported a total of 146,000 tonnes of sodium cyanide to 10 countries, including China, Thailand, Russia and Indonesia, since 2002. China was the largest importer, buying 42,300 tonnes. The ministry said it was now working on a new online system through which traders can easily identify strategic items subject to export controls and receive government permission for shipment of sensitive materials.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS