Seoul, October 05: South Korea’s defense ministry claims that its northern neighbor has one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
North Korea has 13 types of viruses and germs which can be used in biological weapons, as well as up to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, the ministry said in a report on Monday.
Seoul estimated Pyongyang’s stockpile of chemical weapons at between 2,500 to 5,000 tons, according to the ministry’s report to parliament.
The biological weapons could cause diseases such as cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, eruptive typhus, typhoid fever and dysentery, the report added.
The two neighboring countries have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an uneasy armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Tensions escalated the Korean Peninsula in the wake of Pyongyang’s missile tests in May. The tests followed a US-sponsored condemnation of the North at the UN Security Council.
Washington officials and their allies say they are willing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear program. North Korea broke off earlier negotiations charging that the United States was continually making new demands while failing to live up to its promises.
—–Agencies