…As Developer of North Korea missiles, nuclear weapons dies***
The Turkish Military is sending military equipment to Kilis province bordering Syria over concerns of a new wave of refugees inflow, the media reported on Tuesday.
The refugee inflow could be provoked by a possible military operation in Syria’s Northwestern Idlib province.
At least eight vehicles transporting tanks and howitzers passed through Kilis on the way to the Turkish district of Elbeyli on the Syrian border on Tuesday, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
The media outlet said, citing security sources, that this move was aimed at helping contain a new wave of Syrian refugees that could result from a potential Syrian government offensive in Idlib province, which is one of Syria’s de-escalation zones and a remaining stronghold of insurgency in the country.
Turkey has also expanded the Atmeh refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border and reinforced 12 observation points to monitor the situation in the de-escalation zone, according to the report.
The situation in Idlib has escalated over the past weeks amid the recent reports of a potential government offensive after Russia said it had evidence that terrorists in the province were preparing a false-flag chemical weapons attack to frame the government forces and spark a U.S.-led military intervention.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that talks were underway to create humanitarian corridors in Idlib to allow civilians to leave the province.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told reporters on Monday that nobody was interested in active fighting in Syria’s Idlib, which may result in mass casualties.
In the meantime, a veteran North Korean official who was sanctioned for his suspected role in development of the country’s nuclear and missile technology has died, the North announced on Tuesday.
The state-run KCNA news agency said “academician and professor” Ju Kyu Chang died on Monday at the age of 89 from “pancytopenia”, a blood disease.
It said the official state obituary described Ju as “an elder revolutionary who made (a) distinguished contribution to the strengthening of the country’s defence capabilities”.
Ju was a former minister of the North’s defence ministry, which was in charge of developing the country’s nuclear weapons and missiles.
He was one of a number of individual North Koreans slapped with non-proliferation sanctions in 2013 by the US Department of Treasury for their role in the nuclear programme.
Ju oversaw the launch of North Korea’s Unha 2 long-range rocket in 2009, which he watched alongside then leader Kim Jong Il, Yonhap news agency said.
He was also deeply involved in developing the two Unha-3 long range rockets launched in 2012 before retiring in 2015, it added.
Impoverished and isolated North Korea has prioritised its nuclear weapons, achieving remarkable success in recent years.
It conducted its first successful nuclear test in 2006 followed by five more and a string of increasingly successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches.
Last year it claimed it had become a nuclear state, capable of fitting a viable nuclear weapon on an ICBM that could reach as far as the United States’ eastern seaboard.
Additional report from AFP
