Popular Mechanics On NK WMD

[Annie]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4208958.html?page=2

North Korea's Biochemical Threat
While its nuclear test spurs outrage, North Korea has grown a vast biochemical weapons arsenal in secrecy. We investigate Kim Jong Il's deception, plus his rogue nation's human trials and its deadly harvest's terror potential.

BY Simon Cooper
Published in the February, 2007 issue.
(Illustration by Jonathan Rosen)


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.

On day one, the U.S. delegate, Assistant Secretary of State John C. Rood, charged North Korea, along with Iran and Syria, with violating the ban on researching and developing biology for war. "We have particular concerns with the activities of North Korea ... in the biological weapons context, but also because of their ... support for terrorism and their lack of compliance with international obligations," Rood said. Internationally, it is widely agreed that the country is aggressively developing several weapons of mass destruction.

South Korean forces at the DMZ could face biochemical weapons. (Photo by Sungsu Cho/Polaris)
North Korea has been a signatory to the BTWC since March 1987. But, according to defectors, South Korean intelligence agencies and other sources, the nation's Fifth Machine Industry Bureau has led a successful effort to build one of the world's most extensive biochemical warfare programs. The weaponry is thought to have the potential to decimate North Korea's southern neighbor and the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed there, and to disrupt the regional economy. The gravest danger may be that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il could sell his weapons to terrorists....

 

[sealybobo]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4208958.html?page=2

North Korea's Biochemical Threat
While its nuclear test spurs outrage, North Korea has grown a vast biochemical weapons arsenal in secrecy. We investigate Kim Jong Il's deception, plus his rogue nation's human trials and its deadly harvest's terror potential.

BY Simon Cooper
Published in the February, 2007 issue.
(Illustration by Jonathan Rosen)


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.

On day one, the U.S. delegate, Assistant Secretary of State John C. Rood, charged North Korea, along with Iran and Syria, with violating the ban on researching and developing biology for war. "We have particular concerns with the activities of North Korea ... in the biological weapons context, but also because of their ... support for terrorism and their lack of compliance with international obligations," Rood said. Internationally, it is widely agreed that the country is aggressively developing several weapons of mass destruction.

South Korean forces at the DMZ could face biochemical weapons. (Photo by Sungsu Cho/Polaris)
North Korea has been a signatory to the BTWC since March 1987. But, according to defectors, South Korean intelligence agencies and other sources, the nation's Fifth Machine Industry Bureau has led a successful effort to build one of the world's most extensive biochemical warfare programs. The weaponry is thought to have the potential to decimate North Korea's southern neighbor and the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed there, and to disrupt the regional economy. The gravest danger may be that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il could sell his weapons to terrorists....

And bush did nothing