I’m sure no one is surprised by this piece of news:

The top world body on the use of chemical weapons expressed disappointment Friday at North Korea, which remains one of only two Asian countries that refuse to join an international treaty banning such arms, according to Yonhap News.

The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also appealed to Pyongyang to sign the 1997 treaty “as a matter of urgency and without preconditions.”

“The OPCW is disappointed at the lack of interaction with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which together with Myanmar remain the only two countries in Asia that have not joined the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Michael Luhan, a spokesman, said via e-mail.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official title.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is implemented by the OPCW and remains to be signed by just eight countries, including North Korea, Israel, Syria and Egypt.

North Korea, which shares one of the world’s most fortified borders with South Korea, is estimated to have up to 5,000 tons of chemical-warfare agents, according to the defense ministry in Seoul.

The amount makes North Korea one of the world’s largest possessors of such arms, considered weapons of mass destruction, along with its nuclear devices and ballistic missiles.  [Korea Herald]

Many people outside of Korea don’t realize how South Koreans are actually more concerned about the reaction North Korea’s nuclear program will cause to nations outside of Korea instead of any fear that the nuclear weapons could be used against them.  This lack of fear of North Korea’s nuclear weapons has a lot to do with how South Koreans have been living under the constant threat of North Korean artillery as well as these massive chemical weapons stockpiles for decades.