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Pacific Stars and Stripes
November 2, 1999
Pg. 1

By Jim Lea, Stripes Osan Bureau Chief

South Korean intelligence officials have reported that North Korea has been stockpiling chemical and biological weapons.

South Korean national assemblymen were told by the Defense Ministry that Pyongyang has produced and stored more than 5,000 tons of chemical agents. Additionally, North Korea has a "significant amount" of biological agents, the ministry said.

Those stockpiles, the ministry said, are "growing continuously." Last week, U.S. Forces Korea officials announced they would begin distributing gas masks and protective hoods to all U.S. military family members and nonessential government employees stationed in South Korea in mid-November. But they say the move is not in response to any new threat on the peninsula.

"This has been in planning for more than a year as part of our Family and Force-Protection program," said Col. David Apt, U.S. Forces Korea spokesman. "This was just the best time to put it into effect."

People receiving the devices - which are effective against both chemical and biological agents - should not be alarmed, Apt said. Command officials are simply taking responsibility for protecting the community. South Korean, Japanese and U.S. officials contend that North Korea is the greatest threat to peace in Northeast Asia.

South Korean authorities say the North's chemical and biological warfare stockpile is significant and growing. As a matter of policy, U.S. military authorities do not comment on intelligence matters. The Center for Defense In-formation - a private, non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C., which monitors the military - is not so reticent. North Korea's chemical agents include mustard gas, phosgene, sarin and VX agents, the center said, citing the 5,000- ton stockpile figure.

Many North Korean troops are outfitted with protective gear, chemical weapons detectors and decontamination systems, indicating that the country has not ruled out the possibility of using chemical and biological weapons, the center said.

"Pyongyang has been involved in biological weapons research and development for the past three decades," the center said, including research has centered on anthrax, cholera and bubonic plague.

Producing and stockpiling chemical weapons was outlawed in 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Under the convention, signatories are to destroy all stocks of chemical weapons by 2007. A total of 169 countries have signed the convention, but North Korea did not. The center says Pyongyang probably will not sign because the convention includes a verification system, which requires international inspection.

In 1987, North Korea signed the Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons. That agreement, however, does not include a verification-inspection system.