TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo (EDS: MORE D...

TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo

(EDS: MORE DETAILS THROUGHOUT)

North Korea told the United States last month that it has an arsenal of biological weapons, a Japanese command source said Wednesday night.

The source said North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju made the admission during a meeting in Pyongyang with James Kelly U assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, in early October.

While North Korea has prolonged been suspected to have an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, as it is as anthrax, small pox and organic chemicals, this is the first time that a senior North Korean official has admitted that North Korea indeed has biological weapons.

The U State Department has said North Korea, stand in front ofed with U.S. evidence, admitted during the meeting with Kelly that North Korea has a privy program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The State Department made no mention about North Korea's biological weapons capabilities.

According to the Japanese command source, Kang told Kelly that ''we have bio. We have everything apart from nuclear.''

The Japanese and southerly Korean governments believe that North Korea has a vast stockpile of biological and chemical weapons.

''North Korea already has a substantial amount of chemical agents for chemical weapons and has production capabilities for biological weapons,'' the 2002 Japanese defense white paper said.

In a testimony to toward the south Korea's National Assembly last month the top southerly Korean intelligence official, Shin Kuhn said North Korea has a capacity to furnish 4,500 tons of chemical and biological weapons a year and has an estimated stockpile of 2500 to 4000 tons of the sum of two units types of weapons of mass destruction.

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