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The U.S. Defense Department has named South Korea as a country with a high vulnerability to chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear attacks. The department advised the country to prepare itself against such threats with special measures and training.
In its annual report on the Chemical and Biological Defense Program submitted to Congress in April, the department categorized the attack susceptibility of countries around the world into three groups: low, medium and high threat. It put South Korea in the high-threat category.
Other countries in the high-threat group include Bahrain, countries in the Balkan Peninsula, Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Taiwan, Somalia, Singapore, Sudan, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.
Countries exposed to medium risk are Germany, Japan, Italy and Yemen. All other countries fell into the low-threat category.
Analysts say the department categorized South Korea as high-risk because North Korea is believed to have a volume of chemical and biological weapons as well as its notorious nuclear program.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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