A soldier from North Korea who defected to the south has been found with anthrax antibodies in his system, sparking concern at the rogue state's biological weapons capabilities, it has been reported. 
 
 A South Korean intelligence official told local news network Channel A that the unnamed soldier had been either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax and had developed immunity to the deadly disease. 
 
 "Anthrax antibodies have been found in the North Korean soldier who defected this year," the source told the network. 
 
 The report adds to growing concern that North Korea is developing biological weapons, especially in light of details published in 2015 by the Pyongyang Biological Technology Research Institute suggesting that such weapons are being made. 
 
 Anthrax can kill within 24 hours unless people have been vaccinated or antibiotics are taken. South Korea's military is expected to have an anthrax vaccine developed by the end of 2019, the country's defence ministry said. 
 
 There have been reports that Pyongyang is looking to mount anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US. 
 
 The Japanese newspaper Asahi reported how North Korea is experimenting with heat and pressure equipment to prevent anthrax from dying at high temperatures of over 7,000 degrees generated at the time of an ICBM's re-entry into the atmosphere. 
 
 Earlier in December, a White House report raised fears that North Korea was developing chemical and biological weapons that could be "delivered by missile." 
 
 Meanwhile, just before Christmas, North Korea said it is a "pipe dream" for the United States to think it will give up its nuclear weapons, and called the latest UN sanctions to target the country "an act of war" that violates its sovereignty. 
 
 It followed the hermit nation's launch of their most-advanced missile, the Hwasong-15. ||||| One of the North Korean soldiers who defected across the demilitarized zone was found to have developed antibodies against anthrax, according to a South Korean press report. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo 
 
 Dec. 26 (UPI) -- One of the North Korean soldiers who defected to the South in 2017 was found to have antibodies in his bloodstream, a sign Pyongyang possesses anthrax, the acute disease caused by bacteria. 
 
 South Korean authorities did not identify the soldier, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, but did confirm he had developed immunity to the deadly disease before he defected, local news network Channel A reported Tuesday. 
 
 "Anthrax antibodies have been found in the North Korean soldier who defected this year," a South Korean intelligence official told the network on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 The discovery of the antibodies is causing concern in Seoul. 
 
 The disease can kill at least 80 percent of those who are exposed to the bacterium in 24 hours, unless antibiotics are taken or vaccination is available. 
 
 But South Korea's military has yet to secure an anthrax vaccine. 
 
 Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo has said an anthrax "vaccine is expected to be developed by the end of 2019," but not sooner, for the South Korean military. 
 
 North Korea has been suspected of developing biological weapons after the regime publicized the works of the Pyongyang Biological Technology Research Institute in 2015, run by the Korean People's Army Unit 810. 
 
 Pyongyang claimed the facility specializes in pesticide research but analysts have said dual-use equipment on the site suggests biological weapons are being manufactured in North Korea. 
 
 The news of possible North Korea anthrax development comes at a time when South Korean newsmagazine Sisa Journal is reporting the U.S. military in the South has continued to test live bacteria at local bases. 
 
 The Joint United States Forces Korea Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition, or JUPITR, is budgeted to receive about $9 million, according to the report. 
 
 The program, aimed to shape biological detection capabilities, is ongoing, according to Sisa. 
 
 Concerns spiked in South Korea after Seoul's defense ministry confirmed the U.S. military in South Korea imported samples of anthrax 15 times since 2009, and a shipment in 2015 exposed as many as 22 people. ||||| In addition to its nuclear capabilities, North Korea has the ability to douse thousands of people with lethal doses of anthrax, smallpox and viral hemorrhagic fever according to a newly released report from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. 
 
 Kim Jong-un’s regime is thought to have the third-largest chemical weapons supply in the world, and its arsenal includes at least 13 types of biological weapons. The Belfer report on the Hermit Kingdom’s biological weapons spells out the magnitude of the problem and indicates the information that is still missing. As it turns out, the threat from the isolated Asian nation isn’t limited to nukes and intercontinental ballistic missiles. 
 
 “North Korea has a very advanced biological weapons program, and it is extremely dangerous because it can be delivered covertly,” Andrew Weber, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said in an interview with Mic. “Honestly, I wish these threats were taken as seriously as the nuclear weapons threat — because they should be.” 
 
 Biological warfare might make sense for North Korea 
 
 Biological warfare is the act of intentionally releasing infectious diseases onto a population. Bioweapons are inherently different than chemical weapons, as they encompass contagious agents like smallpox or toxins that cause disease. Anthrax, for example, is a bioweapon. 
 
 Bioweapons can be unleashed in a number of ways: via contaminating food, by attaching spray tanks to drones or by using aerosol technology found in everyday pesticide foggers, to name just a few methods. 
 
 In 1984, 751 people got food poisoning in a bioterrorism attack involving contaminated salad bars across a small number of U.S. restaurants. And in 2001, five Americans died from Anthrax-laced letters. While these are smaller incidents, they show the huge potential for damage: “A few kilograms of anthrax, equivalent to a few bottles of wine, released into a dense city could kill 50% of the population,” the Belfer report said. Technically, we’re talking about weapons of mass destruction here. 
 
 “A single person with a backpack sprayer could deliver tens of thousands of lethal doses of biological weapons,” Weber said. “And if [that agent] spreads from person to person like smallpox, they would only have to infect a few people for it to become a global catastrophe.” 
 
 Weber is concerned that biological warfare is the most strategically sensible option for North Korea to attack another nation — even before a hypothetical full-blown war — because although the technology exists to differentiate a natural outbreak from a bioterror attack, there isn’t always a scientific means of proving who initiates it. 
 
 In an image released by North Korean state media in 2015, Kim Jong Un is shown inside of the Pyongyang Bio-Technical Institute, which experts believe is capable of producing biological weapons as well as biological pesticides for farming. KCNA 
 
 “It’s hard to attribute blame,” Weber said. “Frankly, that deniability and uncertainty is what would make this type of attack more attractive to the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] regime. I think it would be used in what I would call a mobilization period ... in a period of tension not unlike today, where the concern is that the United States is building up its military presence and preparation for war.” 
 
 Imagine North Korea unleashing bioweapons on ports and air bases to slow down armed forces, Weber said. In a civilian attack, diseases could be covertly deployed in dense cities like Tokyo and Los Angeles. North Korea just recently demonstrated both the ability and audacity to smuggle a chemical weapon — VX — into a Malaysian airport in February. This instance led to the death of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam. 
 
 “If they can deliver VX into Malaysia and get it into the country secretly, they can do the same, even more easily, with biological weapons,” Weber said. “This is a burning concern of mine, that they could use biological weapons in peacetime. It’s more likely they will use [them] than nuclear weapons, I think.” 
 
 But the public shouldn’t panic, Weber said, and others are less convinced that biological warfare is likely or would be North Korea’s first means of attack. 
 
 “In my opinion, it’s really hard to imagine,” Melissa Hanham, senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said in a phone interview. “Part of the reason [biological weapons] were so easy to ban was because armies didn’t like using them. It risked their own soldiers too much.” 
 
 Emergency services personnel wear protective clothing to participate in an anti-terror and anti-chemical warfare drill session Aug. 20, 2013, in Seoul, South Korea. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images 
 
 Militaries around the world, however, can vaccinate their own forces to prevent death from certain bioweapons. North Korean soldiers are thought to be vaccinated against smallpox, while U.S. soldiers on the Korean peninsula are required to be vaccinated against both smallpox and anthrax. 
 
 But bioweapons have their advantages: They’re quiet, they don’t require large stockpiles like chemical weapons and doctors might not catch them early enough. Anthrax symptoms, for instance, look a lot like the common cold. 
 
 A look at North Korea’s potential bioweapon factory 
 
 While North Korea hasn’t exactly admitted to having biological weapons, assessments from the U.S. and South Korean governments indicate the DPRK became capable of biological warfare as early as the 1960s. Several North Korean escapees have confirmed this. 
 
 In 2015, DPRK state media touted images of Kim Jong-un strolling through an alleged pesticide facility called the Pyongyang Bio-Technical Institute. Photos and satellite images of the structure suggest it could be capable of producing both Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria used for insecticide, and Bacillus anthracis for anthrax. 
 
 Images released by North Korean state media outlets allegedly depict North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touring the Pyongyang Bio-Technical Institute in 2015. KCNA/Rodong Sinmun 
 
 “There really isn’t a sound reason for North Korea to need this kind of facility,” Hanham said. “They can address any food insecurity they are having with chemical pesticides rather than biopesticides — it’s cheaper and easier.” 
 
 Both the Soviet Union and Iraq had “dual-use” facilities as cover-ups for bioweapon production, Hanham added, leading her to believe it’s history repeating itself. 
 
 “It’s expensive. It involves laundering money and finding shipping methods to get all that stuff in the country. It’s not simple,” she said. “They went through a lot of trouble to build that place.” 
 
 What the future could look like 
 
 Both Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer at Microsoft, have been vocal about their fears of bioterrorism. And since 2011, South Korea and the U.S. have conducted annual drills to prepare for possible chemical or bioattacks. That’s still not enough, Weber said; however, he did say he sees some rays of light. 
 
 South Korean soldiers participate in an anti-terror and anti-chemical drill session Aug. 21, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea. The exercises included drills related to chemical and biological attacks and was part of a joint effort between the U.S. and South Korea. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images 
 
 “We’ve made a lot of progress, but clearly there’s a long way to go,” Weber said. He suggested more drills, more vaccines and antibiotics for civilians, more detection systems that identify attacks, more biodefense research and more training for health care workers so they can identify bioattack symptoms early on. 
 
 “It’s hard for lawmakers to appropriate funds for rare events like [bioterror attacks],” he added. “It’s easier, quite frankly, to spend money on tanks and traditional weapons systems than it is to invest in new medicines and new diagnostics.” 
 
 As North Korea continues to lob threats, Seoul, South Korea, is carrying on with business as usual for now. But in a time when relations between North Korea and the U.S. are increasingly strained, diplomacy is seen as the better solution. 
 
 “All weapons of mass destruction are pretty bad news,” Hanham said. “The trick is also to convince North Korea not to use them in the first place.”
– Blood tests on at least one of the North Korean soldiers that defected to the South this year have detected something extremely concerning, according to a South Korean TV channel. Channel A, citing an unnamed South Korean military source, says anthrax antibodies were detected in the soldier, suggesting Pyongyang could be ramping up its biological weapon capabilities, UPI reports. According to Channel A, South Korean authorities have confirmed that the soldier is immune to the deadly bacterium, though it's not clear whether his immunity comes from vaccination or exposure. Anthrax can kill within 24 hours if people are not vaccinated, the International Business Times notes, and the South Korean military says its anthrax vaccine will not be ready until the end of 2019. The news adds to concerns about possible biological attacks: The White House released a report last week that said Pyongyang had spent "hundreds of millions of dollars on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could threaten our homeland," and Japan's Asahi newspaper recently reported that North Korea has been trying to find ways for anthrax to survive the high temperatures that intercontinental ballistic missiles experience.