U.S. Has Sordid History of Biological Warfare in Korea

US may have been testing anthrax at two other bases in South Korea

the hankyoreh reports:

Last month a live anthrax sample arrived in S. Korea, and the US is still declining to answer questions about it

Allegations are surfacing that United States Forces Korea (USFK) anthrax testing has been conducted at bases in Gunsan, North Jeolla, and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

USFK is currently facing criticisms after an episode last month in which a live anthrax sample was delivered for testing at Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province.

The anthrax tests are part of USFK’s Joint United States Forces Korea Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition (JUPITR) program. New revelations show that USFK laboratories running the program exist not only at Osan and Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, but also in Gunsan and Pyeongtaek.

The group Citizens’ Association for Reclaiming the Kunsan US Military Base as South Korean Land revealed the findings at a press conference on June 17 in front of Kunsan Air Base.

The association also called for the US to “immediately stop its biological and chemical warfare response training and close its biological agent research centers.”

The US has a sordid history of using biological weapons in Korea.  During the Korean War the US military dropped metallic shells on North Korea that snapped open upon hitting the ground, releasing a swarming cargo of insects that unleashed bubonic plague, smallpox, and anthrax.

An international scientific investigating team, headed by a highly noted British biochemist from Cambridge University, did research in Korea and issued a report saying that sudden appearances of insects and spiders, of species not normally known in the region, in winter, and in association with the dropping of strange containers and objects by US military planes were evidence of bio-warfare. Lab tests performed on fleas discovered in such unusual circumstances, positively showed the presence of bubonic plague bacteria.

In some cases, US military jets, usually F-86 fighters, had flown over North Korea dropping masses of fowl feathers tainted with anthrax.

In 1956 American journalist John Powell was charged with 13 counts of sedition for trying to expose the US Biological Warfare campaign in Korea. In 1953 former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover brought Powell before congressional committees charging him with “un-American activities.” Years later, in the 1980’s, Powell’s story was finally aired in an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.