When it seemed that the spread of bird flu virus has considerably reduced in many regions of the world, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) or MI6 has made a sensational disclosure that North Korea is trying to weaponise the bird flu virus. This news reconfirms the worst fears of virology experts that it would be a relatively simple task to genetically engineer the H5N1 bird flu virus to spread without conact between humans and animals. The use of this bio-agent as a weapon would be difficult to detect because the H5N1 virus can naturally mutate into a human-transmissible form without human intervention. Experts believe that if North Korea provides the bird flu bio-weapon to anti-US terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda then it would be "the greatest threat a terrorist organisation could unleash." There are reports that the Bush administration has briefed its senate members on this 'top secret' issue.

The H5N1 bird flu virus (also called Avian flu) has killed at least 115 people in the world since late 2003 as reported by the WHO. According to a report, the Avian flu virus that emerged in Asia shares some genetic characteristics with the flu virus that killed more than 50 million people worldwide in 1918, shortly after World War I. This huge catastrophe happened because the virus jumped directly from birds-to-humans and subsequently from humans-to-humans. Fortunately, till date, all recent cases of bird flu have only occurred in those who came into close proximity of infected birds, and no case of human-to-human transmission has been reported.

However, some reports indicate that the threat of a pandemic may well be at the doorstep and the question is only when. Against this backdrop, if a terrorist organisation achieves success in weaponising the H5NI virus, the situation could become critical, especially if it succeeds in aerosolizing the virus since it would be very difficult to identify the virus before it starts infecting the population. In an aerosol form the virus would be undetectable at border crossings and virologists fear that a genetically engineered version of the virus would be far more lethal than any current threat from the virus.

Intelligence reports about North Korea's adventurism should be taken seriously for various reasons. First, North Korea belongs to the category of so-called 'rogue' states. Secondly, some years back it had accepted that it was in possession of biological weapons and, lastly, its biological warfare programme is probably the largest in the world. Currently, almost 800 scientists who were earlier employed in the Russian bio-warfare programme, Biopreperat, are working in various laboratories in the country. It has also been reported that they are trying to weaponise the 1918 Spanish flu virus.

Incidentally, US scientists have recently isolated the Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918. Unfortunately, the full genetic sequence of this virus is openly available in scientific magazines or on the internet. Naturally, an interested terrorist organization can use such inputs to make bio-weapons. Experts feel that this would be more terrifying than even engineered smallpox, since this disease could be immediately controlled because of the availability of a vaccine. But, there is no vaccine available for human beings to protect themselves from the H5N1 virus.

The global bird flu eradication programme currently appears to be directionless. The WHO has issued clear guidelines for handling the disease in the animal population, but there is less clarity among policymakers about handling the threat if human-to-human infection starts spreading. Now, the possibility of a North Korea-terrorism nexus will complicate the matter. Recently, a high ranking defector from North Korea's Academy of Sciences alleged that the research to weaponise the H5N1 virus is a priority for North Korea's biological weapons programme. A CIA study shows that the H5N1 virus could affect one-fifth of the world's population, with 30 million requiring hospitalisation and at least 2 million people could die. For the last few years the global efforts to solve the North Korea problem were concentrated on dealing with the nuclear issue. The time has now come to address issues related to its investments in bio-weapons.