Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Cyanide shipped to North Korea


2004/9/25
By Park Chan-kyong SEOUL, AFP



More than 100 tons 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 Friday.
The ministry of commerce said the businessman exported 107 tons 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 2003, 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 tons of the same chemical, 15 tons 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.

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