Korea

North Korea's other weapons: Expert warns nukes aren't biggest concern

North Korea’s nuclear program has long triggered condemnation – including the U.N. Security Council’s recent decision to apply some of the toughest sanctions in history – but is something far more lethal lurking in the Hermit Kingdom’s arsenal?

"They have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but the one that gets the least attention, and that I worry most about, is their biological weapons program," said Andrew Weber, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Chemical and Biological Defense Programs from 2009-2014.

When it comes to biological weapons, Weber said, just a tiny amount can bring incredibly lethal results. "Ounces or pounds would be enough. You can have millions of lethal doses of anthrax in a several-pound quantity... With smallpox, maybe just a few grams."

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to chemical or biological warfare - a concern that Weber and the White House seem to share - is the fact that these incredibly lethal attacks can easily be "cloaked in deniability," and difficult to trace back to the perpetrator. Weber pointed out that “it takes just one or two people to covertly deliver a strategic biological weapons attack.”