Alarm as North Korea chemical imports revealed
North Korea imported 107 tons of South Korean-originated sodium cyanide last year, acquiring a toxic chemical that can be used to make sarin nerve gas.
South Korea worried that some of its “strategic goods” – materials that can be used for military and terrorist purposes – have recently ended up in the hands of countries like North Korea and Libya, and said it was tightening control of exports of those items.
In the latest revelation, a South Korean company was found to have sold 107 tons of sodium cyanide to a Chinese firm from June to September last year. The cargo was then shipped to North Korea, said the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.
The South Korean company shipped the chemical without an export permit. The company head was later prosecuted and sentenced to a suspended 18 months in jail for violating the country’s trade law, the ministry said.
Separately, South Korea is investigating a report a Malaysian company exported 40 tons of sodium cyanide, including 15 tons originating in South Korea, to North Korea in August.
Sodium cyanide is normally used to make fertilisers and in industrial plating. But treated with acids, it can turn into sarin, a nerve agent that can cause loss of consciousness, paralysis and death.
In 1995, members of a Japanese cult released sarin gas into the Tokyo underground, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.
Although it was unclear why the North wanted the chemical, the communist country does have a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, in addition to its nuclear weapons programmes, according to US and South Korean officials.
With its agricultural sector devastated by years of bad weather and soil erosion, North Korea strives to boost its fertiliser production to increase agricultural yields and allay chronic food shortages.
Last week, Thai officials confirmed that North Korea attempted to import 70 tons of South Korean-originated sodium cyanide from Thailand last year before South Korea persuaded Bangkok to stop the shipment.
In line with a US-led global campaign to limit international trading in materials that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, South Korea has been increasing manpower and education to monitor exports of strategic goods.
In February, South Korea said prosecutors were investigating a company accused of selling nine balancing machines to Libya between February 1999 and June 2002 without proper clearance.
The machines can used to balance centrifuges, a key tool in enriching uranium to make atomic bombs.
