Really Bad Shipment

North Korea Caught Exporting Chemical Weapons to Syria in '09

Social Issues – Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has learned that in 2009, North Korea attempted to smuggle components for chemical weapons into Syria. The act was in violation of the U.N.’s ban on arms purchases from the isolationist country. The U.N. will be investigating the incident shortly.

In November of 2009, Greek authorities captured a shipping container on a freighter en route to Syria containing chemical reagents and roughly 14,000 anti-chemical weapon protective suits.

Both North Korea and Syria have not yet signed the Chemical Weapons Convention established in 1997, which makes developing and processing chemical weapons illegal. China’s lax attitude toward North Korean exports and foreign sanctions is being blamed for contributing to North Korea’s arms dealing industry.

South Korea’s defense ministry estimates that their northern counterpart possess 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, reaffirming why so many eyes are on the future of the communist nation’s new head of state. That said, American based Nuclear Threat Initiative considers North Korea’s chemical weapons stockpile to be the third largest in the world, following the good ol’ U.S. of A. and ever-stable Russia.

Read more at the Daily Yomiuri