South Korea says North Korea is conducting biological weapons experiments to test the possibility of loading anthrax-laden warheads on its intercontinental ballistic missiles. According to Asahi, a Japanese tabloid, an unnamed source in South Korea's Intelligence Service noted that the United States Government was aware of the tests, which were meant to ascertain whether the anthrax bacteria could survive the high temperatures that occur during warheads re-entry from space.
The report is coming days after South Korean government commenced efforts toward soothing broken relations with China and North Korea ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics billed to commence in February.
South Korean President, Moon Jae-in had suggested that he was willing to suspend all internal military drills as well as those conducted jointly with the United States Military.
According to the report, Pyongyang sees the joint exercises as preparation for war, while Beijing is still angry about the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system, commonly known as THAAD, by South Korea.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he was unaware of plans by South Korea to suspend or 'alter longstanding and scheduled and regular military exercises'.
According to Dailymail, "the first mass use of anthrax spores as a weapon in war is said to have taken place during the Japanese occupation of China from 1932 to 1945. The Japanese allegedly experimented with the use of anthrax and other biological weapons in Manchuria, and some 10,000 deliberately infected prisoners are thought to have died as a result.
"Britain experimented with anthrax as a weapon in the 1940s and the US made some for military use in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet Union also weaponised anthrax and Iraq admitted to doing so in 1995.
"The World Health Organisation estimated that should 50kg of anthrax be released from an aircraft over an urban population of five million, there would be 250,000 cases of the disease."
