North Korea providing technical aid to Syria, says UN

North Korea appears to have stepped up its covert assistance to a Syrian government agency responsible for producing that country's chemical weapons and advanced missiles, a United Nations panel has concluded in a confidential report.

The technical aid from Pyongyang, which began more than a decade ago, included three visits by North Korean weapons experts in 2016, as well as 40 previously unknown shipments of specialised materials and equipment used in building chemical manufacturing plants, according to a draft of the report seen by the Washington Post.

The revelations underscore widely held concerns about North Korea's willingness to market its most advanced weapons technology to foreign clients.

Multiple UN investigations have linked President Bashar al-Assad's forces to mass-casualty attacks on Syrian civilians using sarin, a banned chemical toxin.

North Korea's alleged aid to Syria is detailed in a 70-page report compiled by the UN Panel of Experts, a technical body that releases periodical assessments about compliance with UN resolutions, including trade sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.

The report, which has not been publicly released yet, describes ongoing efforts by North Korea to circumvent trade restrictions and sell banned military hardware and know-how to dozens of foreign clients, from the Middle East and North Africa to Latin America.

The UN Panel of Experts has previously accused North Korea of aiding Syria's chemical-weapons programme, asserting in an August report that Pyongyang had secretly delivered gas masks and other protective gear to the Assad Government. But the latest report suggests that the assistance was much broader, and included, for example, materials useful in rebuilding Syria's damaged chemical weapons facilities.