“Microbes by ton”, that is
how a Washington Post story describes the bioweapons threat from North Korea,
the rogue regime that has recently acquired Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles
(ICBM) and has declared itself a nuclear power after claimed detonation of a
hydrogen bomb.
But if the assessments of US
and Asian intelligence officials are true, as the Washington Post and other stories
on the subject in the global media quote, then a whole new chapter in North
Korean threat to the world is about to begin, in extension of its regular
warnings of launching nuclear attacks.
“North Korea is moving
steadily to acquire the essential machinery that could potentially be used for
an advanced bioweapons program, from factories that can produce microbes by the
ton, to laboratories specializing in genetic modification,” the Post story
writes.
There have long been
speculation about North Korea developing weapons of biological warfare, after
the country established in 1980s a biological weapons programme under Kim
Il-Sung, current dictator Kim Jong-un’s father, but it never went beyond
pathogens like smallpox and anthrax and even now there is no hard evidence to
prove it.
But the way North Korea is
moving these days, sending its scientists abroad to study advanced microbiology
and acquiring machinery that can be used to produce biological weapons at large
scale, analysts says “North Korea could quickly surge into industrial-scale
production of biological pathogens if it chooses to do so.”
And the most horrible part of
it, the intelligence agencies spying on North Korea may not find if North Korea
actually has started producing biological weapons at military scale as they
suspect North Korea is using civilian factories to conceal its programme. “If
it started tomorrow we might not know it, unless we’re lucky enough to have an
informant who happens to be in just the right place,” the Post story writes
quoting an official.
Experts say genetic engineering
to produce even more virulent strains of microbes or germs is another scientific
breakthrough that North Korea might have been trying. According to a study, North
Korea’s Biological Weapons Program, released in October by Harvard Kennedy
School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, North Korean and
Chinese scientists jointly published a research paper in 2016 on producing new
species of bacteria through genetic engineering.
Though the research paper
writes that it is “it is highly unlikely that the typing of these genomes will
provide know-how for biological weapons development effort,” the Post story
says it is evidence of North Korea’s ambition to acquire cutting edge genetic
and microbiological sciences. The ambition raises a valid doubt that it may be
used to create even more potent germs, especially when North Korea’s proven ability
and credentials to carry out such advanced scientific research have been limited
so far. Attempts to produce such super-germs is not new and met with mixed
success during the cold war era.
An analysis by Amplyfi, an
artificial intelligence company, on North Korean efforts to acquire advanced genetic
and biotech capabilities, in fact, has shown that search on topics like “gene
expression” and “nucleic acid sequence” from North Korea has gone up
voluminously in the last two years.
The Post report writes
quoting Amplyfi co-founder Chris Ganje “There are worrying indicators of
unintended support and it is obvious that the international community and
larger institutions need to be cautious in providing seemingly benign academic
scientific education and training to North Korea,” as to circumvent
international monitoring, North Korea is trying to gain technological insights
from academic institutions, NGOs and private organizations.
South Korea has warned in
past that it may launch biological attack thorough its special operations
forces (SOF), a Rand Corporation paper, The Challenge of North Korean
Biological Weapons, says.
The paper that details submission
before the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the
United States House of Representatives in October 2013 writes, “Indeed, North
Korea special forces are a likely means for delivering North Korean biological weapons.
North Korea has some 200,000 special forces, a small fraction of which could
deliver devastating biological attacks against South Korea, Japan, and even the
United States.”
©SantoshChaubey
