China twice in the last year has detected trace amounts of sarin nerve agent at its border with North Korea, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, March 7, 2006).
While carrying out standard checks, Chinese military personnel in November and in February detected 0.015-0.03 micrograms per cubic meter of the chemical warfare material in Liaoning province, according to a report by Asahi Shimbun that cited anonymous Chinese military officials.
Beijing speculated that the gas resulted from an accident or an experiment conducted by North Korea, which is thought to hold up to 5,000 metric tons of chemical weapons.
The incidents have led China to step up monitoring, according to the newspaper report (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Oct. 8).