North Korea creates “poisoned pens” for bacteriological warfare program, says US report

North Korea is developing lethal bacteria and viruses as part of the country’s biological weapons (BW) program, US officials have warned. In its annual assessment, the US State Department said the reclusive state developed sprays and “poison pens” as a means of spreading deadly diseases, according to a report from the UK-based organization. The times. The report titled “Adherence and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments” focuses less on North Korea’s nuclear program and more on weapons designed to spread bacteria such as anthrax and smallpox.

The report noted that the North has had a constant focus on its BW program.

“The United States assesses that the DPRK has a dedicated nation-wide offensive biological weapons program. The DPRK has the capability to produce biological agents for military purposes. The DPRK has the technical capability to produce bacteria, viruses, and toxins that could be used as BW Agents”, the report posted on the State Department website said.

“Pyongyang is likely capable of arming BW agents with unconventional systems, such as sprayers and poison pen injection devices, which have been deployed by the DPRK to deliver chemical weapons and could be used to covertly deliver BW agents,” he added.

“The DPRK also has the ability to genetically modify biological products with technologies such as CRISPR, which have been reported by its State Academy of Sciences and other sources,” the report states.

CRISPR is an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. It is a technology used to selectively edit genes.

Biological weapons release disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants. Agents like anthrax can cause illness and death. North Korea is thought to have had BW capabilities since the 1960s.