The US cautions that North Korea may utilise gene editing technology to create military bioweapons.

Experts claim that Pyongyang's purported use of CRISPR indicates that the DPRK is employing a "relatively new approach" in its use of biowarfare.

North Korean anti-epidemic personnel wearing hazmat suits and gas masks march in a military parade in Pyongyang. | Image: KCNA (Sept. 9, 2021)

According to a new U.S. government analysis, North Korea may be working to expand its covert biowarfare programme and is capable of using gene-editing technologies like CRISPR to create bioweapons for military use.

Pyongyang continues to run a "dedicated, national level offensive" bioweapons programme in an effort to challenge ROK and US dominance in other military domains, according to the State Department's 2024 Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments report, which was made public on Monday.

The research claims that North Korea has the "technical capability to produce bacteria, viruses, and toxins" for biological agents even though it is a party to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which forbids the development and use of biological weapons. 

The compliance report was mostly similar to the one from the previous year, but it differed significantly in how it evaluated North Korea's capacity for genetic modification. 

As per the report, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea possesses the potential to genetically modify biological products through the use of technologies like CRISPR, as confirmed by reports from the State Academy of Sciences and other relevant sources. 

The term "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats," or CRISPR, describes a technique for selectively altering the DNA of living things.

Although scientists have long speculated that the DPRK would eventually turn to genetically modified biological weapons, this is the first time CRISPR has been addressed in this particular context in the State Department's compliance report.

Yang Uk, a military analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, stated that Pyongyang may be inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic in its search for novel ways to target its adversaries. He added that North Korea's purported adoption of CRISPR represents "a relatively new approach" to developing bioweapons.

He continued by saying that it is challenging to prevent biological warfare by methods like immunisation without being aware of North Korea's preferred biological weaponry.

Dealing with biological attacks is extremely difficult, he stated. "We don't know what kind of vaccine we need if we don't know what kind of germ they are preparing."

The warning from last year that North Korea is likely able to distribute biological agents through "unconventional systems" including sprayers and poison pen insertion devices was reiterated in the compliance report.

The State Department also emphasised North Korea's capacities for producing conventional weapons and biotechnology, which it claims can support its biological weapons programme and its purported cooperation with other nations on dual-use scientific topics or the acquisition of supplies and equipment.

Due to difficulties in assessing stockpiles and tracking production, it is unknown how fully equipped North Korea is for biological warfare; however, experts have previously cautioned against underestimating the threat posed by the nation's decades-long efforts to create agents, including anthrax.

Yang stated that in addition to the DPRK's more well-known nuclear and chemical weapons, the U.S. report contributes much-needed attention to the country's biological warfare capabilities.

"It is widely known that North Korea has already given chemical weapons to Syria and other nations in relation to chemical attacks," he said to NK News. However, biological weapons have not received much consideration up to this point.

In an effort to support leader Kim Jong Un's 2022 claim that North Korea's nuclear status is "irreversible," the report released on Monday also detailed the country's ongoing nuclear development in the previous year.

The State Department reported that a 5 MWe reactor at Yongbyon seemed to be operating and that cooling water was being released, citing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for confirmation.

During a drive for engagement with the United States and South Korea in 2018, North Korea seemed to shut down the 5 MWe reactor; however, three years later, the IAEA discovered indicators of renewed operation.

As of August 2023, the nuclear watchdog had noted no evidence of reprocessing of radioactive fuel at Yongbyon, but it had noted indications that the centrifuge enrichment plant was still in functioning.

The paper also referenced the December 2023 IAEA assessment stating that Yongbyon's light water reactor is running and "has probably achieved criticality," potentially providing North Korea with weapons-grade plutonium. 

Similar to the previous year's report, the 2024 report said that the IAEA's findings indicate North Korea is still mining, grinding, and concentrating at the Pyongsan Uranium Mine and Pyongsan Uranium Concentrate plant.

North Korea has neither joined or acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, so this was not covered in the separate document on chemical weapons compliance that the State Department recently provided.