It has been learned that the Biological Research Institute, placed under the jurisdiction of the No. 2 Academy of Natural Sciences (formerly the Academy of Defense Sciences), has played the leading role in the development of germ weapons in the North, and according to a source North Korean authorities believe, as a result of computer simulation tests, that their germ weapons are capable of neutralizing South Korea or Japan within a week after the outbreak of a conflict.

"In addition to the Biological Research Institute, North Korea has two or three laboratories developing germ weapons," added the source. "They have so far succeeded in developing about a dozen bacilli as weapons including like anthrax, typhoid and smallpox."

North Korean authorities screened a documentary of the simulated computer tests for National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il and senior military officials of the rank of the Ministry of People's Armed Forces bureau director-general, or above. "Kim Jong Il is learned to have declared, 'We would achieve unification without even having any glass windowpanes of Pyongyang citizens broken.' The remarks seem to have been made under the premise of using germ weapons," observed the source.

The Biological Research Institute has succeeded in developing those germ weapons largely thanks to a major role played by Russian experts who the institute invited early in the 1990s when they were made jobless in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

North Korea has over 10 plants manufacturing the germ weapons developed by the Biological Research Institute and other laboratories, some of which are reportedly named electric or electronic entities.

The No. 2 Academy of Natural Sciences, to which the Biological Research Institute belongs, takes charge of research and development of all weapons and military equipment, manufactured under the direction of the No. 2 Economy Committee in charge of military logistics. Among the areas of research and development undertaken by the Biological Research Institute are electronics, biochemistry, ground weapons, naval vessels and missiles. Its staff is recruited from among graduates from prestigious colleges and universities including Kim Chaek Institute of Technology and the College of Science.

The Ministry of National Defense estimates that Pyongyang holds in stock about 5,000 tons of germ weapons. Pyongyang joined the Biological Weapons Convention in 1987, but has yet to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.

(Lee Kyo-kwan, haedang@chosun.com )