US intelligence believes North Korea is still between 12 and 18 months away from gaining the ability to load a nuclear warhead onto one of its ICBMs, but South Korean intelligence reportedly has credible evidence that Kim Jong Un and his regime have begun testing loading anthrax onto the country’s ICBMs, according to Japan's Asahi newspaper.
As Asahi reports (via Google Translate)
Recently, an information source in Seoul revealed that North Korea has started experiments to mount biological weapons anthrax on the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The United States also gained similar information and said that "North Korea is threatening the United States with nuclear and biological chemical weapons" in the "National Security Strategy" announced on the 18th.
North Korea has started experiments such as heat and pressure equipment to prevent anthrax from dying even at a high temperature of over 7,000 degrees generated at the time of ICBM 's reentry into the atmosphere. In part, there is unconfirmed information that it has already succeeded in such experiments.
According to a former US government official, the US forces have been collecting information on the fact that North Korea is cultivating anthrax bacteria from the US for the past, the US military started spreading smallpox and anthrax I was vaccinating. In May 2011, we also conducted a joint US and Korean joint exercises assuming North Korea's biological weapons terrorism for the first time.
Reports of the testing may have led the US to mention the threat of biological weapons in the new National Security Strategy document released earlier this week. President Donald Trump also delivered a speech yesterday explaining the essence of the strategy.
The North Koreans are trying to determine whether the anthrax virus can survive the immense temperatures generated during missile re-entry. During its most recent missile test, North Korea introduced the Hwasong-15, a new ICBM that US experts believe could strike anywhere within the continental US.