The Washington Post reported that Pyongyang has been meticulously working on biological weapons for the last decade and currently has approached the creation of this mass destruction technology.
The first fears about the North Korean biological weapons program were expressed in 2006 when US intelligence officials sent a report to Congress warning about the development of biological weapons by Pyongyang, The Washington Post newspaper reported. In 2006, North Korea could not produce biological weapons over a lack of technical skills.
According to US and Asian intelligence officials, Pyongyang has obtained the necessary technologies and is steadily moving to acquiring biological weapons.
“That the North Koreans have [biological] agents is known, by various means … The lingering question is, why have they acquired the materials and developed the science, but not yet produced weapons?” a senior US official said, as quoted by The Washington Post.
According to the newspaper, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is also sending the country’s scientists abroad so that they seek advanced degrees in microbiology.
North Korea is actively working on creating weapons of mass destruction. In 2017, Pyongyang conducted a number of nuclear and missile tests, violating UNSecurity Council resolutions and causing a negative backlash in the international community.