North Korea’s Biological Weapons Programme: Implications and Global Responses

Context

US officials have warned that North Korea has been developing ‘poison pens’ and sprays as a part of their biological weapon (BW) programme. 

About North Korea’s Biological Weapons Programme

• Biological Weapon (BW) program: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has a dedicated, national-level offensive BW program with capability to:

• • Produce biological agents for military purposes
  • Weaponizing Biological Weapon agents with unconventional systems such as sprayers and poison pen injection devices. 
  • Genetically engineer biological products with technologies such as CRISPR.

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What are Biological Weapons (BW)?

• About: BW are used to release disease causing organisms or toxins and to harm and kill humans, animals, and trees. 
• Weaponized Agents: Almost any disease-causing organism (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, prions or rickettsiae) or toxin (poisons derived from animals, plants or microorganisms, or similar substances produced synthetically) can be used in BW.
  • Agents such as anthrax can be used to cause widespread disease leading to large scale deaths. 

Biological Weapons and International Laws

Geneva Protocol (1925): It banned the use of asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases, usually referred to as chemical weapons, as well as the use of bacteriological methods of warfare. 

Biological Weapons Convention (1975): It is also known as Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and their Destruction.

• It is a legally binding multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
• Genesis: The Convention entered into force on 26 March 1975. 
  • The BWC supplements the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibited only the use of biological weapons.
• Mandate: The BWC effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons. 
• Signatories: India ratified the treaty on July 15, 1974.
  • Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BWC (Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan and Tuvalu).

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