Abstract
Since after the September 11 terrorist attack in the United States, the nature of threat caused by nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons changed substantially from that in the past. In addition the preparation for the possible military attack with NBC weapons in the traditional context of nation-to-nation, international community began to review the need for defending against the threat of chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear (CBRN) attack by non-state actors including international terrorists. In fact, the fear of the vertical/ horizontal proliferation of weapons for mass destruction (WMD) could, by extension, serve as a source of CBRN threats, should NBC weapons be used in state-to-state conflict or as a target or means of terrorist attack. In this regard, combatting WMD proliferation through the series of multi-layered internationally coordinated efforts will lead to reducing CBRN threats that could manifest today or in the future. However, those non-proliferation approaches alone will not avert the risk of state and non-state actor using WMD, or of non-weaponized CBRN assets being turned into means of targets of attack. As a general trend, the spectrum of CBRN defense is extremely broad, and the causes of CBRN situations are also broad in scope, ranging from armed conflict, terrorism and natural disaster, to accident. In this sense, existing CBRN scenarios based on the past occurrence represents a momentous challenge to the government and all other domestic sectors. The development of effective mechanisms against such CBRN threats is a priority not only in the case of the ROK and China, which were argued in this paper, but also across the globe.
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