North Korea despot Kim Jong-un could unleash sarin nerve gas missiles – the same weapon of mass destruction Assad used on his people
KIM Jong-un may be able to launch a warhead loaded with deadly SARIN nerve gas, according to the Japanese Prime Minister.
Shinzo Abe made the comments after the Syrian government allegedly killed more than 80 people using the banned chemical weapon last week.
This remarks also come amid simmering tensions between North Korea, its neighbours and the United States.
Prime Minister Abe, who was speaking at a parliamentary diplomacy and defence committee, warned that despot Kim’s could launch a sarin attack on Japan.
He said: “There is a possibility that North Korea is already capable of delivering (via missile) a warhead containing sarin.”
Japan has experience of sarin attacks, notably in 1995 when doomsday cult the ‘Aum Supreme Truth’ used the nerve agent in a Tokyo subway – killing 12 people and injuring 6,000.
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Abe did not elaborate or say where he obtained the information, according to the reports.
But Yoshihide Suga, the government's chief spokesman, later clarified the Prime Minister’s comments.
He said: "Referring to the Syrian situation, our prime minister displayed recognition that we can't deny the possibility that North Korea can equip (a missile) with chemical weapons.
"North Korea... is likely to maintain several facilities to produce chemical weapons and already possess a considerable number of them.”
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked in recent days amid concerns that Pyongyang could be on the verge of executing its sixth nuclear test.
Dictator Kim has also been enraged by the arrival of a US aircraft carrier-led strike group, named USS Carl Vinson, to Korean shores.
Originally conceived as a pesticide, sarin was used by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime in 1988 when thousands of Kurds were gassed in the town of Halabja in northern Iraq.
The Aum Supreme Truth cult also used the nerve agent in a 1994 attack in the Japanese city of Matsumoto, killing seven people.
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