By Lee Ji-eun
The Ministry of National Defense is confirmed to have distributed a guidebook on possible North Korean bioterrorism to all military units. The guidebook contains countermeasures to bioterrorism, and the necessary medical support.
The book, the first of its kind, seems to be aimed to prepare against possible bioterrorism attacks on the occasion of the Nuclear Security Summit, which is scheduled to be held on March 26 and 27 in Seoul.
The 130-page book contains the organizational chart of the armed forces and their system to counter the attack, issue terror alerts and medical support processes, analysis of terror signs with biological weapons, evacuation of infected patients and their treatment in isolation.
In particular, the book provides details on features and infectious symptoms of major viruses and bacteria, such as the plague and smallpox, as well as anthrax which the North Korean military possesses en masse.
The ministry shows measures to be taken depending on four colored levels of alert against the threat of biological weapons _ guarded (blue), elevated (yellow), high (orange) and severe (red).
With 13 kinds of biological weapons such as anthrax, typhoid and dysentery, North Korea is expected to conduct terror attacks employing a special military unit or aircraft. But South Korea has no vaccines against viruses and bacteria, except those for smallpox and cholera.
At an international symposium on the threat of chemical and biological weapons from North Korea in 1999, the U.S. health authorities claimed that half of the Seoul population would be killed or injured within 10 days if 10 kilograms of anthrax were sprayed in Seoul.
“It is urgently needed to take measures, such as developing additional kinds of vaccines as North Korea might cause unprecedented chaos and damage to the South with asymmetric biological weapons,” said lawmaker Song Young-sun of the ruling Saenuri Party. “We have to make watertight preparations against any threats, including bioterrorism on the volatile environment on the Korean Peninsula under the North Korean leadership of young Kim Jong-un.”