may be attempting to make an arsenal of
bioweapons after stepping up moves to build factories and laboratories,
it has been claimed.
The
North Korean
dictator is steadily acquiring new machinery that can be used to churn
out deadly microbes by the tonne, according to US and Asian intelligence
officials.
It comes ten years after a
report sent to Congress warned secret work was underway to produce a
biological weapon - but that the hermit state lacked the technical
know-how to complete the programme.
But according to the
Washington Post, Kim Jong-un has sent experts around the world to secure degrees in microbiology.
Analysts
in America are concerned that the research could now spiral into
full-scale production of dangerous pathogens that can be loaded into
bioweaponary.
The Post quotes a senior
US official as saying: '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?
'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.'
Biological
weapons, also known as germ weapons, use any form of disease-causing
microbes to attack or kill humans, animals or plants.
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