N. Korea just as Dangerous with Chemical and Biological Weapons

North Korea has recently demonstrated to the world that it is more than capable of detonating a thermonuclear device. Though it has been reported that the blast was ONLY roughly equivalent to 550 tons of TNT does not negate the fact that even such a "small" detonation would have a catastrophic impact. Let's consider for a second that N. Korea does not posses a delivery system capable of carrying such a payload to its destination. Have we completely ruled out a much more primitive delivery system. For example, what is to keep N. Korea from loading a nuclear device up onto a vehicle and driving it to the South Korean border and detonating it there? I am certain that this scenario has already been considered by the " Powers That Be ".

Sound Scary ?

Let's consider this. Why should N. Korea be feared only for their Nuclear program alone? From all of the research I have done on the current news events, I have discovered that not one word has been mentioned of their Chemical and Biological capabilities. Why worry about a 550 ton Nuke when a 60 pound artillery shell armed with either a nerve agent or anthrax could potentially produce the equal or greater affects.

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative dot Org ( www.nti.org ), North Korea has been reported to have mass produced such infectious biological agents as Anthrax, Botulism, Plague, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hemorrhagic Fever, Typhus, Small Pox, and Tuberculosis.

These agents have been listed with the Center for Disease Control ( www.bt.cdc.gov ) to be Category A agents. Their definition of a category A agent is as follows:

They can be easily spread or transmitted from person to person
They result in high death rates and have the potential for major public health impact
They might cause public panic and social disruption
They require special action for public health preparedness.

These have been labeled as high priority organisms or toxins because they pose the highest risk to public safety as well as national security.

In addition to North Koreas Biological Weapons Program, they are no strangers to Chemical Weapons. With at least 8 industrial facilities ( and probably more ) for producing chemical weapons, N. Korea has engineered such chemicals as sarin, tabun, phosgene, adamsite, prussic acid, a family of mustard gases, to include nerve agents and blood agents.

As reported by the Federation of American Scientists ( www.fas.org ), as of 1996 North Korea has amassed approximately 5,000 tons of biological and chemical weapons. It also indicates that this stock pile figure is on the low end of the scale.

N. Koreas proven delivery systems include artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers, mortars, bombs as well as the FROG or the SCUD missile.

Now, with all of this chemical and biological technology which has the potential to wipe out the entire planet a couple of times over, why is the international community more worried about a " Small " nuclear device.

IMO. .. .. If North Korea were to employ the use of Nuclear Weapons, they are certain to use Chemical and Biological weapons as well. So, why hasn’t the government made light of this fact? Is this situation Not more dangerous than say Iraq who might have had WMDs? Or Iran who has the potential of making WMDs a number of years down the road?

In conclusion, I personally believe that negotiations with North Korea are imperative to quell their use of NBC. It is also of my opinion that no country should be kept from defending itself on the battlefield. So how is it possible to quell this situation when N. Korea has stated that they merely are only strengthening their defenses?

The N. Korea tests may be a greater-Asia scheme to see to what extent the West has developed its biological and chemical weapons capability. I.e. there are countries out there that wanna know whether the west has chemical/bio weapons that are sophisticated enough to deal swiftly with a crisis such as this one.

[edit on 12-10-2006 by Prokurator]

[edit on 12-10-2006 by Prokurator]

The only Real thing sophisticated enough to deal with a chemical or biological threat is Preparedness. In roughly 1989 or there about, North Korea took measures aimed at protecting its civilian population and military forces against the effects of chemical weapons. This included training in the use of protective masks, suits, detectors, and decontamination systems. This was supposedly done to protect from perceived threats that either the U.S. or South Korea "might" use chemical weapons on them.

I'm gonna throw this out of the way, the sixth and seventh basic rules of the Geneva Covention state

Rule Six(6)

"6. Parties to a conflict and members of their armed forces do not have an unlimited choice of methods and means of warfare. It is prohibited to employ weapons or methods of warfare of a nature to cause unnecessary losses or excessive suffering."

That explicitly bans both Nuclear Weapons as well as Biological Warfare.

As well as;

"7. Parties to a conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants in order to
spare civilian population and property. Neither the civilian population as such nor civilian persons shall be the
object of attack. Attacks shall be directed solely against military objectives."

That also specifically bans Nuclear and Biological Warfare.


If North Korea used any of those, even on one country alone, it would be subject for any country of the Geneva Convention could send their soldiers, as well as NATO deployment.

Unfortunately... Kim Jong Il withdrew from Signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty of 1968. I don't know why but I can guess.

I'm not worried about North Korea, frankly. As I've said, North Korea does not have a strong military, or a strong government, nothing will happen, not for now.

Biological weapons may not be what they used at the time of the Geneva Convention. It might be possible to cause an acute (non-deadly) epidemic which would temporarily paralyze N. Korea's army.

AeroQuake,

I am curious as to your definition of a strong military.
I was just reading today that North Korean forces are almost double that of the South Korean forces. It is also stated that South Korea has about 3 Million Reserve forces while North Korea has over 7 million reserve forces. Even though North Korea may have a weak government, they do posses strength in numbers.

I dont think the bomb that was detonated in NK was thermonuclear..I could be wrong but the yield would have been much higher had it been thermonuclear in nature.