UN Report Links North Korea to Syrian Chemical Weapons

North Korea shipped 50 tons of supplies to Syria for use in building what is suspected to be an industrial-scale chemical weapons factory, according to intelligence information cited in a confidential United Nations report, cited in The Wall Street Journal.

A Chinese trading firm working on behalf of Pyongyang made five shipments in late 2016 and early 2017 of high-heat, acid-resistant tiles, stainless-steel pipes and valves to Damascus, the report said, citing them as evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is paying North Korea to help his country produce chemical arms.

The shipments are part of a steady stream of weapons-related sales by Pyongyang to Syria and to Mr. Assad’s patron, Iran, estimated by some experts to be worth several billion dollars a year.

U.S. officials recently warned Syria of a possible military response to the regime’s increased use of chemical weapons against civilians. The Syrian American Medical Society, a relief organization, says the regime has launched at least three such attacks so far this year. Damascus denies using chemical weapons.

Even as an international-sanctions noose tightens around North Korea, Syria’s conflict has been a windfall for its leader, Kim Jong Un. Such illicit revenues undercut Washington’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against North Korea with the aim of thwarting its nuclear-weapons program.

Trump administration officials say if sanctions don’t get Mr. Kim to denuclearize, the U.S. may resort to military action.

The U.N. report, which hasn’t been publicly released, detailed evidence and intelligence from several member states. Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, or SSRC, the Assadbacked group responsible for developing chemical and other weapons of mass destruction, paid Pyongyang’s primary arms dealer, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, for the materials through a series of front companies, according to the confidential report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

One of those firms works for an SSRC-controlled entity that the U.S. Treasury says has been used in the past to buy missile and rocket propellants and parts for Syria’s SCUD missile program.

China told the U.N. investigators it had no evidence that one of its companies was doing business with North Korea’s primary arms dealer. It didn’t deny the sales to Syria in the U.N. report, however, and said it was open to investigating those alleged connections to North Korea if investigators provided more evidence.

Pyongyang, which has resorted to a range of sanctions-evasion strategies, likely makes the largest chunk of its illicit money from proliferation, according to Bruce Bechtol, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency officer specializing in northeast Asia. Sales have long been concentrated in the Middle East, especially Iran and Syria, and Africa, he said.

While Washington has secured more stringent policing of North Korea’s sanctions evasion in many areas of the world, including China, it has struggled to shut down North Korea’s proliferation of weapons.

Larry Niksch, a former U.S. Congressional Research Service expert on Asia, estimates North Korea’s revenue from cooperation with Tehran on nuclear and missile technology, arms sales and provisions to Iran-backed terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah totaled $2 billion to $3 billion a year in the last decade.

The Syrian war has been a particular boon for North Korea, said Mr. Bechtol and others. Some analysts question, however, whether it is possible to put a dollar figure on North Korean arms sales, saying so little is known about production costs and the terms of illicit contracts.

Iran isn’t only a primary buyer of North Korean arms and weapons technology, analysts say, but is also bankrolling Syria’s purchases.