by NICK BAILEY and MICHELE NEUBERT
Amid a flurry of missile tests and inflammatory rhetoric, the world’s attention is focused on North Korea's nuclear program.
But one expert believes the rogue state's stockpile of chemical weapons could also bring catastrophic consequences.
The Center for Nonproliferation Studies estimates North Korea has between 2,500 and 5,000 metric tons of chemical weapons.
In particular, it has a large supply of VX, the deadliest nerve agent ever created; last year it was used to assassinate Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, at Kuala Lumpur airport.
The chemical stockpile could harm thousands of people if it were attached to a missile or if it ended up in the hands of Islamist extremists, according to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commanding officer of the U.K. Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment (CBRN) and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/north-korea-also-has-nerve-agent-vx-chemical-weapons-expert-n802231
