North Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria but they were seized in Turkey along with arms and ammunition, Japanese media said Tuesday, as the United States threatened action over an alleged chemical weapons attack. 
 
 A Libyan-registered vessel, identified as Al En Ti Sar, left North Korea for Syria earlier this year with the consignment, the Sankei Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources from the U.S. military, Japanese and South Korean intelligence. 
 
 The U.S. military, which obtained the information, was tracking the ship in coordination with other countries, the report said. 
 
 The vessel sailed through Dardanelles in Turkey on April 3 and was searched shortly after by Turkish authorities, who had been tipped off by the U.S. 
 
 Turkish officials seized 1,400 rifles and pistols and some 30,000 bullets as well as gas masks, apparently for chemical protection, the newspaper report said. 
 
 U.S. authorities believe that the ship was intending to unload its cargo in Turkey and send it overland to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the report said. 
 
 Turkey detained the captain of the vessel and later charged him after he admitted his ship was on its way from North Korea and was carrying arms bound for Syria. 
 
 Damascus is the subject of sanctions by the European Union, the U.S. and its allies banning the sale of weapons. 
 
 North Korea is barred by United Nations sanctions from trading in weaponry in the wake of nuclear and missile tests. If confirmed, Pyongyang could face additional U.N. sanctions over the shipment. 
 
 North Korea and Syria have reportedly had a military relationship for some years, including during the current civil war in the Middle Eastern country. 
 
 There were also widespread reports that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear plant that was destroyed by Israeli bombers in 2007. 
 
 The West has ramped up its rhetoric following accounts of a deadly chemical attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, which it blames on Assad’s regime. ||||| BEIJING -- North Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria this spring, presumably for use in the Middle East nation's chemical weapons program, but the shipment was intercepted by Turkey along with arms and ammunition, a Japanese newspaper reported Tuesday. 
 
 The Libya-flagged ship El Entisar (“Victory”) was stopped April 3 by Turkish authorities as it passed through the Dardanelles, the Sankei Shimbun reported. Acting on the tip from the United States, authorities searched the ship and seized 1,400 rifles and pistols and about 30,000 rounds of ammunition as well as the gas masks. 
 
 The captain of the vessel admitted that the shipment had come from North Korea, according to the newspaper, which said the plan was for the arms to be unloaded in Turkey and transported by land into Syria to support the government of President Bashar Assad. 
 
 The revelation comes amid international outrage over accusations that Syrian troops used chemical weapons against civilians suburbs of Damascus last week. Any connection between North Korea and the alleged attacks could further isolate North Korea. 
 
 U.N. sanctions imposed after North Korea conducted nuclear and missile tests prohibit international sales of the nation's weapons, once a major source of hard currency. Syria is also subject to sanctions. 
 
 "Gas masks and protective gear are considered weaponry because they are used for atomic, biological and chemical weapons. So if this equipment was sold by North Korea to Syria, on orders of the Syrian government, it shows that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of chemical weapons,’’ said Shin In-kyun, a South Korean military expert and head of the Korea Defense Nework. 
 
 This is not the first time that North Korea has been accused of supplying equipment related to chemical arms to Syria. In November 2009, Greece seized almost 14,000 suits that provide protection from such weapons on a North Korean ship they believed was headed to Syria. South Korean authorities also intercepted a North Korean shipment of protective gear on a vessel sailing near the South Korean port of Busan that year. 
 
 "There is a long-term relationship between North Korea and Syria, similar to the agreement with Iran, on nuclear and conventional weapons," said Park Syung-je, a military expert at the Asia Strategy Institute in Seoul. “I don’t see any signs that it has diminished.” 
 
 A Syrian delegation was reported to have visited Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, in late July. The Korean Central News Agency quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying the talks were aimed as “boasting bilateral relations” between their countries. 
 
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 Twitter: @BarbaraDemick 
 
 barbara.demick@latimes.com 
 
 Special correspondent Jung-yoon Choi in Seoul contributed to this report.
– One of the world's veteran pariah nations reportedly tried to help out one of its newer ones: A Japanese newspaper says North Korea got caught trying to ship gas masks to Syria this spring. The report in the Sankei Shimbun says Turkish officials acting on a tip from the US stopped a ship from North Korea, seizing the gas masks along with arms and ammunition, according to the Japan Times. The apparent plan was to unload the cargo in Turkey, then transport it over land to Bashar al-Assad's army. The revelation (based on anonymous sources) comes as the US weighs military action over Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons. "There is a long-term relationship between North Korea and Syria, similar to the agreement with Iran, on nuclear and conventional weapons," an expert at the Asia Strategy Institute in Seoul tells the LA Times. “I don’t see any signs that it has diminished.” If confirmed, the report would put Pyongyang in violation of UN sanctions that prohibit the sale of its weapons. It also would add further weight to assertions that Assad planned to use poison gas.