Fifty miles south of the Chinese border lies the rural town of Chongju. Like many North Korean towns, it is a small, impoverished place where people scratch a bare existence from government-controlled farms. What photographs exist of Chongju reveal a brown landscape of depleted-looking fields and shanty-style houses. It is hard to believe anything of value grows here.
But, according to intelligence reports, something precious to the North Korean regime may be under cultivation in Chongju. Beyond the shacks stands an installation suspected of being a component in North Korea’s bioweapons (BW) research and development program. The effort is steeped in a level of secrecy possible only in a totalitarian state, but it is thought to encompass at least 20 facilities throughout the country. Another 12 plants churn out chemical weapons.
In late November, delegates of the signatory countries to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) met at the United Nations office in Geneva for the sixth review of the treaty since its inception in 1972. The meeting took place just weeks after North Korea publicly added the third prong to its capacity for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by testing a nuclear device.
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(Note: You may have noticed we’re posting more and more stuff from Popular Mechanics these days, which is because that magazine’s great staff has agreed to let us feature their best defense-related content. Look for it here and at Military.com.)
OMG, North Korea has WMDs… I am sure Marines are preping for landing as we speak!
What’s that? They are getting sweetheart fuel and food deals instead? I am confused…
Popular Mechanics is notable for being a very unreliable source of any information related to military or classified programs.
Over the years, all sorts of oddball aircraft that don’t exist have appeared on the magazine’s cover, along with breathless descriptions of secret “UFO” type machines (The Roswell “flying saucer” was speculated to be a small airship crewed by Japanese IIRC).
It’s sort of like “The Weekly World News” of technology publications.
The threat from N. Korean WMD is not so much from their use by DPRK (though paranoia is apparently rampant), but the sale of such weapons to whom ever has the cash. The DPRK has a severe cash flow problem and that really hurts the ruling elite. The sale of WMD could come from the government or individuals in the military establishment.
Terrorists do not need a militarily significant bioweapon for a terror attack. It does not even need to be a really effective weapon. All it needs to be is a certifiable bioweapon and publicity.
Patrick: Yeah, the dice might roll that way, too.
Thing is, Kaddafi got a pretty good deal out of selling “the Functioning Core” his WMD gear — excuse me, voluntarily relinquishing it. In exchange, Libya cleared a way out of “the Non-Integrating Gap”.
If they’re of a mind to sell their WMD, the Norks may be able to cut a better deal with the Core, rather than some turd in a cave.
Or, maybe I’m just an optimist. But not so much that I’d bet the farm at the craps table.
China will not allow North Korea to fold up & fall.It will not allow history to repeat itself like it did in Eastern Europe in the late 80’s & early 90’s.It will prop up Kim Chong Il & whoever succeeds him,just like its propping up the Burmese dictatorship & like I’m sure it’ll make sure there are no drastic changes with Vietnam,Laos,& Cambodia.I’m sure it will continue to prop up Musharraf in Pakistan or at least insure that if he is “replaced,” its by someone acceptable to them.As long as North Korea has China for a “sugar daddy,” then the chances for it folding up & going away is VERY SMALL.Off topic,don’t be licking your “made in China” Barbie Dolls.Any country that can poison every product it exports will not stop supporting North Korea no matter how much we wishfully hope for it to.