North Korea is one of 183 countries that have become state parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), a worldwide agreement that acknowledges the long-lasting and widespread damage biological and toxin weapons are capable of unleashing.

Yet, as the BWC marks its 50-year anniversary in 2022, there are lingering concerns that the DPRK has violated its commitment made on March 13, 1987 to “prohibit the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons.”

To date, there has not been sufficient public evidence available to substantiate claims of North Korean violations, in part because the nature