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The Ministry of Defense has predicted that should North Korea use chemical weapons in a full-scale way, it would result in 2.19 million military and civilian casualties in the South within the first month of fighting.
According to 2003 military research material handed to Grand National Lawmaker and parliamentary national defense committee member Song Yeong-seon by the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday, it was predicted that North Korea would use 740t of chemical weapons all over the country within the first three days of fighting, killing or injuring 290,000 soldiers and 1.9 million civilians within a month, a total of 2.19 million dead and injured. The Defense Ministry estimated that North Korea would use 70t of chemical weapons in the Seoul area alone, killing or injuring 1.2 million people. Moreover, once chemical warfare began, one-third of South Korea's major battle equipment would suffer damage.
North Korea is currently estimated to possess 2,500~5,000t of 17 types of chemical weapons, including nerve, blistering, blood, asphyxiating and gas agents.
(Pak Min-seon, sunrise@chosun.com )
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