North Korea is creating lethal viruses and bacteria as part of the hermit state’s “national level” biological warfare programme, US intelligence has discovered.
Officials say the despot, who inherited absolute power over the country in 2011, has added germ sprays and poison pens capable of unleashing lethal diseases like smallpox and anthrax, to his arsenal of weapons.
Experts at the US State Department, who track the compliance of foreign governments with international arms regulations, said the authoritarian ruler has an offensive biological weapons program – in violation of the country’s global obligations.
“The United States assesses that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has a dedicated, national-level offensive BW [biological weapons] programme,” the US State Department report reads.
“The DPRK has the capability to produce biological agents for military purposes [and] the technical capability to produce bacteria, viruses and toxins that could be used as BW agents.
READ MORE: Russia’s allies ‘treating Ukraine war like a world war’, expert says
The state’s growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media and secretly criticize their government, the researchers wrote.
But the isolated country’s digital ambitions have to contend with poor electricity supplies and low network connectivity. Those challenges, and a history of reliance on human methods of spying on its citizens, mean that digital surveillance isn’t yet as pervasive as in China, according to the report, published by the North Korea-focused website 38 North.
The study’s findings align with widely held views that Kim is stepping up efforts to tighten the state’s control of its citizens and promote loyalty to his regime.
New laws and recent reports of harsher punishments suggest that the government is cracking down on foreign influence and imported media, likely helped by fences and electronic monitoring systems installed on the border with China during the pandemic.
