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The BBC quotes the South Korean news agency Yonhap as reporting that a chemical used in nerve gas has been shipped from South Korea to North Korea via China. According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy on Friday, 107 tons of sodium cyanide were shipped by a South Korean company in China, without government approval, sometime between June 2003 and this month. The entire amount was then re-exported to North Korea by the Chinese company. Sodium Cyanide, when treated with acid, can become a nerve agent that causes loss of consciousness, paralysis and death. South Korea is a member of the Australia Group, a group of 39 countries that have agreed to enforce export control measures on sodium cyanide and other chemicals to reduce the risk of the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

The South Korean Commerce Ministry is also looking into a separate allegation that 40 tons of sodium cyanide were shipped to the North by a Malaysian company. The confirmation of illegal exports came after denials on Monday that North Korea had imported sodium cyanide from Thailand, though the North Koreans had attempted to get 70 tons of the chemical from Thailand just last May.

Since 2002, South Korea has exported 146,000 tons of sodium cyanide to ten countries, including China, Thailand, Russia and Indonesia. The largest shipment of 42,300 tons was sent to China.

SOURCE: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0224 gmt 24 Sep 04

Labels: chemical weapons, DPRK, North Korea, South Korea

Yomiuri Shimbun has reported that Japanese and U.S. intelligence officials, using satellite images and other methods, have detected the movement of missile units in North Korea around multiple Rodong missile launch sites. [Korea Times: "Seoul Alert for Possible NK's Missile Test"]

The Defense Ministry of South Korea has sought to calm fears. Military spokesman Brig. General Nam Dae-youn suggested that the movements were a part of annual military exercises, but acknowledged that the possibility of a test-firing could not be ignored.

Japan has deployed an Aegis-guided destroyer and some intelligence planes, including the EP-3 to the East Sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula to monitor the situation. North Korea shocked Japan in 1998 by test-firing a missile across Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. intelligence is particularly concerned about the possibility of a test of the Taepodong-2 missile. The Taepodong-2 is believed to be capable of striking targets within a range of 3700 miles, thus representing a potential threat to Alaska and Hawaii.

Labels: DPRK, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taepodong-2 missile

News of Thursday’s huge blast and “mushroom cloud” in North Korea reached the worldwide press just hours ago. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reports that the blast occurred around the town of Yongjo-ri, in Kim Hyong-jik County, Ryanggang province. The explosion occurred just six miles southwest of Yongjo-ri base for Rodong 1 and 2 missiles and 18 miles from the Sino-Korean border.

South Korean officials deny that the explosion was caused by a nuclear test, and this opinion was reaffirmed this morning by Secretary of State Colin Powell:

"We have seen reports of this explosion, but based on all the information that we have, it was not any type of nuclear event," he said. "We are trying to find out more about it, and what exactly it was, if anything, but it does not appear to be a nuclear event." ( VOA News)

There were hints of the possibility of sabotage in the Chosun Ilbo story, which noted that the blast in the vicinity of the missile base occurred on a national holiday, September 9, North Korea’s foundation day.

“When I activated a huge switching gear in the mountainside, the ground split open, and a missile appeared.”

The Rodong missiles based in Yongjo-ri and elsewhere carry a smaller payload than the larger Taepodong, but the Rodong can be carried on a mobile transporter-erector from tunnels, where they can be hidden from U.S. satellites. The Daily Yomiuri suggests an explanation for the location of the Yongjo-ri tunnels: its proximity to the Sino border makes it difficult for U.S. forces to attack the facilities, since cruise missiles or bombers would have to fly over Chinese air space.

The Daily Yomiuri quotes a North Korean defector:

”When I activated a huge switching gear in the mountainside, the ground split open, and a missile appeared.”

Recent success in wooing North Korean defectors was reported last May in The Weekend Australia to be the result of a highly secret plan nicknamed “Operation Weasel.”

Another [defector] is a military officer, Park Young-soo. His debriefing notes are marked "then I asked through intermediary to elaborate on his involvement in the nuclear/missile part on his initial request".

The [debriefing notes prepared on the preliminary interrogations of the four defecting senior military officers] say Park's response was: "Worked for the unit No583 under the Military Construction Bureau to build a missile launch base in Woltan-ri, Kimhyungjik-gun Ryanggando. Also for the unit No740, 4th corp as a special instructor in military martial arts."

The four men have all been targeted as part of a plan codenamed Operation Weasel, a smuggling plot ostensibly run by private citizens from 11 countries but with inspirations that stem from one of the Pentagon's most secretive and self-contained units.

"What you have in the US, more than ever before, is a factional Government.... You have the State Department that does one thing and you have the Pentagon that does the other."

The existence of Operation Weasel, revealed by Inquirer last month, was denied by the US State Department. However, no component of the operation fell under the State Department's ambit. "What you have in the US, more than ever before, is a factional Government," says a source intimately involved with the plan.

"You have the State Department that does one thing and you have the Pentagon that does the other."

In Washington this week, the leader of a key South Korea-based humanitarian organisation, Norbert Vollersten, sat down for lunch at the Mayflower Hotel with two of the biggest fish in the Bush administration, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

What was discussed is not known but what is clear is that an advocate for North Korean refugees with a track record for helping defectors is considered important enough to join their table.

“North's 'weasels' go West”, Martin Chulov, Inquirer Feature Column, The Weekend Australian, May 17, 2003, Pg. 23.

Alas, no one from the Pentagon appeared on the Sunday talk shows this morning.

Labels: Colin Powell, DPRK, North Korea, nuclear weapons, Rodong missiles, South Korea