NK denies supplying Syria with chemical weapons equipment

North Korea slammed a UN probe Friday that says Pyongyang has been providing Syria with materials that can be used to manufacture chemical weapons, claiming it has not developed and produced them.

The North has supplied to Syria materials that can be used to produce chemical weapons like acid-resistant tiles and valves, and the country sent its missile technicians to Syria's chemical and missile facilities, The New York Times reported last week, citing a UN panel report.

A director of the press at the North Korean foreign ministry's institute for American studies denied the report. He insisted that the United States has fabricated cooperation between the North and Syria to toughen sanctions against Pyongyang and justify its military invasion into Syria.

North Korea has been providing Syria with materials that can be used to manufacture chemical weapons, according to multiple news reports Wednesday based on a U.N. probe. (Yonhap)

"As had been elucidated several times, the DPRK does not have a single record of developing, producing and stockpiling a chemical weapon, and it is opposed to chemical weapons themselves," the official was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.

The DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The North became a Biological Weapons Convention signatory in 1987.

The North claimed the international community should be aware that the US was the first user of chemical weapons in the world and used biochemical weapons to kill some 50,000 North Koreans during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Despite Pyongyang's claim, the North is presumed to possess about 25 chemical agents, including six nerve agents, such as sarin and VX, according to a 2016 report by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The country is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention. (Yonhap)