TAIPIEI, TAIWAN – North Korea continues to maintain a program of secret biological weapons in violation of international treaties, according to a newly published US government report.
Organic weapons use pathogens such as bacteria or viruses to weaken or kill. Their invisible nature and devastating potential make it one of the most insidious forms of weapons.
“The United States evaluates that the RPDC has an offensive dedicated at the national level [biological weapons] Program, “said the State Department in its 2025 report on the world’s fight against armaments and disarmament agreements.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or RPDC – The official name of North Korea – has long suspected its clandestine research, including nuclear weapons.
According to the report, the diet has “the technical capacity to produce bacteria, viruses and toxins that could be used as BW [biological weapons] Agents ”and is also able to manage genetically genius biological materials.
It is even more worrying, he said, is Pyongyang’s potential capacity to deploy these weapons using unconventional and secret delivery systems.
“Pyongyang is probably capable of armaments of BW agents with unconventional systems such as sprayers and poison pen injection devices, which have been deployed by RPDC for the delivery of chemical weapons and could be used to secretly deliver BW agents,” said the report.
Despite being a part of the State to the Convention on organic weapons, or BWC, since 1987 – a treaty which prohibits the development, production and storage of such weapons – North Korea has shown little intention to respect its commitments.
After having submitted a relationship of measuring confidence in confidence in 1990, saying that there was “nothing relevant” to disclose, the country did not submit other reports for more than three decades.
“The RPDC has been assessed would have had BW capabilities since at least the 1960s,” said the report.
The State Department concluded that the actions of North Korea violated Articles I and II of the Convention. The United States would continue to closely monitor developments and assess the prospects for diplomatic engagement to combat Pyongyang’s violation of its obligations, the ministry said.
Cooperation in Moscow-Pyongyang
The State Department also expressed its concerns concerning a strategic partnership treaty signed between Russia and North Korea in mid-2024.
He warned that certain provisions of the agreement could violate Russia’s obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or TNP.
The Treaty of Strategic Partnership describes a large scientific and technological cooperation and explicitly mentions joint research in fields such as space, biology, artificial intelligence, information technologies and nuclear energy.
Although the treaty disturbs this cooperation as a peaceful cooperation, officials said that any civilian nuclear collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang should be assessed in the light of international legal commitments in Russia, according to the ministry.
As a part of the state of nuclear weapons to the treaty without proliferation, Russia is prohibited from helping any state of non -nuclear weapons – such as North Korea – in the development, acquisition or manufacture of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices, he said.
“Civil nuclear cooperation between Russia and RPDC could also involve the obligations of Russia TNP, depending on the nature and circumstances of this cooperation,” said the ministry.
Edited by Mike Firn and Stephen Wright.