North Korea claims during the Korean War that the US

had used Biological Weapons (BW) to cause hardship to

the North Korean people. Any valid claims?

Are there any valid claims to support North Koreas assertion that the US indeed used biological weapons in the Korean

War on North Korean soil?

Question 1

Finding International Commission & Scientist

1952 by the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China, set up by the Helsinki-based World Peace Council

claims of 448 germ warfare sorties by the US Air Force the Commissions report was compiled by experts from

Sweden, France, Italy, Brazil and Russia, as well as Dr Joseph Needham, a respected British authority on Chinese science.

The report contains a series of specific case studies. In one of them, more than 700 voles infected with plague were found in the Kan-Nan district of China in April 1952

The resulting 600-page report included results of post-mortem on the victims: these identified bubonic plague, cholera and anthrax.

Prof Mori released has visited nine sites that reported germ weapon attacks by American forces during the war and interviewed more than 30 survivors.

'The bombs found on the Korean Peninsula were made of metal, while those used in China were ceramic, he says, 'but the symptoms reported in North Korea are very similar to those witnessed in China.

Operational and Cofession by US the detained US airmen

The Air Force was assigned the primary operational role in biological warfare during the Korean War .

Col Frank H Schwable, broadcast his confession on North Korean radio in February 1953 and claimed that the verbal order to carry out missions to spread cholera, typhus and yellow fever had come all the way from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Assistance by members of Japanese Unit 731 for US to developed biological weapon

US had bought the expertise of Unit 731, a Japanese army biological warfare team, which conducted human experiments in the 1930s and 1940s to perfect the technology of bacteriological warfare: in World War 2.

Prof. Mori believe U.S. has used expertise from 731 Units for dropped biological weapons on North Korea's

Conclusion This group is of the view that it is true

the U.S. has launched a biological attack on the north Korean based on reports from Steven Encoot and scientific reports from Jooseph Needamand British Embryologist Commission.

However, the use of germ biological weapons in war is a breach of the Geneva Convention and would destroy continuity and human survival.

U.S. will not completely recanted and apologized to North Korea

Are using biological weapons beneficial for the sake of winning a war or is it forbidden by any provision of

international humanitarian law?

Question 2

1346 at medieval seaport town of Kaffanear the Black Sea in which invading Tartar army catapulted plague-infested corpses into castle causing an outbreak of plague known as the Black Death which eventually infected the European continent.

Biological weapon and war history

Biological weapon and war history

World War I Germany incorporating biological weapons in its war strategies such as exporting anthrax-infected sheeps to Russia in

covert operations in Romania, infecting war horses and mules to weaken French military operations,

Biological weapon and war history

World War II Japan developed its biological warfare program in 1932 through the establishment of Unit 731 under Dr. Shiro Ishii who led over 3,000 scientists and technicians who carried out cruel experiments on human subjects in laboratories at the town of Pingfan in Manchuria, China

The advantages and disadvantages of biological weaponsAdvantages:

Stealthy weapon

It also allows a perpetrator ample time to flee before a particular biological weapon triggers casualties

"Poor Man's Atom Bomb" as it is relatively easy and cheap to produce it would cost conventional weapons $2000; nuclear armaments $800; and chemical agents $600 to inflict 50 percent casualties per square kilometre whereas the use of biological weapon would only cost $1 to produce the same outcome

Advantages Raw materials needed to produce biological

weapons are easily obtainable from the market Easily concealed and camouflaged Creating mass panic by spreading fear

The advantages and disadvantages of biological weapons

Disadvantages Difficult to contain and control the

biological agents both during the development stage

Could become unstable under certain conditions such as exposure to ultraviolet light or heat

The advantages and disadvantages of biological weapons

Prohibition on the use of biological weapons in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) protects persons who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities

restricts the means and methods of warfare. IHL is also known as the law of war or the law of armed conflict

prohibits all means and methods of warfare which fails to discriminate between those taking part in the fighting and those who are not, with the purpose to protect the population, property, and environment from injury or from being damaged.

IHL therefore has prohibited and banned the use of many weapons, including chemical and biological weapons.

The international community has banned the use of chemical and biological weapons after World War I through the 1925 Geneva Protocol

reinforced the ban in 1972 through the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) by prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of biological weapons

Conclusion

Biological weapons have been used by states since the medieval times until today and have proven to be a strategic and effective weapon in weakening enemys morale and fighting spirit.

Though states still depend on conventional weapons in order to win a war such as the use of the atomic bomb during World War II

Nevertheless the use of biological weapons has also been beneficial in achieving specific warfare strategies such as to weaken and instil fear and confusion on enemy soldiers at the initial phase of a war prior to staging actual large-scale attack.

Therefore, in terms of its advantages, the use of biological weapon should not be underestimated as it could also prove to be beneficial in winning a war

From your point of view, if there was a genuine case that the US had used biological weapons on North Korea during the Korean War, should the US

have been trialed for its misconduct and the reason(s) for the US always to escape for its misdeeds.

Question 3

Should the US be put on trial for its misconduct?

Complaints on the use of BW by the US were pursued by the Union of Soviet and China at the UN.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), a non-governmental organization (NGO) sent a 7-member delegation comprising lawyers from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Poland to North Korea on 3-19 March 1952 to investigate the allegations that the US used biological weapons in the Korean War.

On 31 March 1952,IADL issued Report on US Crimes in Korea which concluded that the US had used biological weapons in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol during the Korean War.

An International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China (ISC)conducted a two-month investigation in North Korea and China in June 1952.

ISC comprised of 7 scientists led by Dr. Joseph Needham from the University of Cambridge. The other 6 were respected scholars from Universities of Rome, Bologna, and Sao Paolo;onewas director of the laboratory of animal physiology; one was the director of the central clinical laboratory of the Hospitals Board of the City of Stockholm; and one distinguished professor of the USSR Academy of Medicine

ISC concluded that the US armed forces had indeed used bacteriological weapons upon the peoples of Korea and China.

The US has committed a major international war crime and should be put on trial.

North Korea should put forward their case to be decided by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

However, the US has till today denied the allegations and dismissed the reports as disinformation campaign by the communist bloc comprising USSR, China, and North Korea.

Reasons the US always escapes its misdeeds.

Reason no 1: The veto power by the US in the UN Security Council. US would exercise its veto power to strike out any Security Council resolutions or investigation that does not serve its national interests.

Reason no. 2: North Koreas non-membership status in the UN from the time of its independence on 9 September 1948 until 16 September 1991 as well as the impossibility of obtaining the consent of the US to bring the case to ICJ

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