Many of the machines were banned from sale to North Korea under international sanctions because of their possible use in a bioweapons program. [Assassination sheds light on North Korea’s chemical arsenal]It was the first public confirmation of the existence of such machines in North Korea, and some U.S. and Asian experts saw their presence as deeply ominous. But there are signs that North Korea is attempting to catapult itself into the 21st-century worlds of genetic research and biomedical science. Joseph DeTrani, a retired CIA veteran who oversaw intelligence collection for North Korea in the 2000s, noted that ambiguity has been a built-in feature of North Korean weapons programs for decades. “They talk openly about their ‘nuclear deterrent,’ but with chemical and biological weapons, it’s different,” DeTrani said.

Source: Washington Post December 10, 2017 23:41 UTC