The report to a UN Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters recently, said they had investigated ongoing ballistic missile cooperation between Syria and Myanmar, including more than 40 previously unreported North Korea shipments between 2012 and 2017 to Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which oversees the country’s chemical weapons program.
The investigation has shown “further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs,” the UN monitors wrote.
They also inspected cargo from two North Korea shipments intercepted by unidentified countries en route to Syria. Both contained acid-resistant tiles that could cover an area equal to a large scale industrial project, the monitors reported.
One country, which was not identified, told the monitors the seized shipments can “be used to build bricks for the interior wall of a chemical factory.”
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told Fairfax Media it is “concerned” by the reports and condemns North Korea’s illicit weapons program “in the strongest possible terms”.
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