One Arrested In Bio-Weapons Case

Japanese police said yesterday they had arrested a former president of a trading company on suspicion of illegally exporting to North Korea equipment that could help produce biological weapons. Kim Yeong-Geun, a 58-year-old ethnic Korean living in Japan, was arrested for allegedly shipping a freeze dryer to North Korea in September 2002 without trade ministry permission, said a police spokesman in western Yamaguchi prefecture.He admitted during questioning that he was aware the device could be used by a military-linked research institution in North Korea, Jiji Press and Kyodo News reported, citing police sources. The man used to head a Tokyo-based trading company, Meisho Yoko. Reports said the company shipped the freeze dryer to the communist state via Taiwan