US Report: N. Korea Has Capability to Genetically Engineer Biological Weapons

North Korea has the capability to genetically engineer biological weapons, according to a U.S. government report. 

The U.S. State Department presented the assessment in the annual report titled Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, which was released on Monday.

The report said that North Korea has the capability to genetically engineer biological weapons with technologies such as CRISPR, which have been reported by the North’s State Academy of Sciences and other sources.

CRISPR is an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.” It is the technique for precisely editing the genetic information in the DNA of living organisms.

Last year’s report said North Korea has “at least a limited capability” to genetically engineer biological weapons. The change in the wording indicates that the North’s biological weapons production capability might have improved. 

This year’s report also said that North Korea has an offensive biological weapons program, adding it continued its program despite becoming a State Party to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1987.