More Than a Nuclear Threat

The danger North Korea poses to the world is more than just its rogue nuclear program and ballistic missile brinksmanship. Pyongyang develops other weapons of mass destruction and backs them with significant conventional military capabilities. As his pursuit of chemical and biological weapons shows, Kim Jong-un commands tools of indiscriminate mass murder beyond nuclear weapons, and U.S. policy must be responsive to these threats as well. North Korea, one of only 6 countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, is believed to have stockpiles of thousands of tons of chemical weapons, including sulfur, mustard gas, chlorine, sarin, and VX, some of the worst chemicals that mankind has devised. These agents could be delivered by a variety of North Korean weapon systems, notably the massed artillery deployed near the DMZ which would place Seoul at extreme risk. Experts believe North Korea would not hesitate to use such tactics as a way to make up the deficiency in its aging military and that such an attack could feasibly result in millions of civilian casualties in South Korea. In early 2017, we all remember North Korean agents assassinated Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of Kim Jong-un, with VX nerve agent in Malaysia. This operation proved to the world not only that North Korea has access to chemical lethal weapons, but also the willingness and the expertise to transport and apply them in a targeted and sophisticated manner.