The South Korean Defense Ministry believes that North Korea is developing anthrax and smallpox in addition to other biochemical weapons. decade3d - anatomy online/Shutterstock.

A North Korean biochemical weapons researcher absconded to Finland last month, taking with him a data storage device containing details of human experiments, a source told Yonhap News Agency this week (July 2).

The 47-year-old expert, known only as Lee, was a researcher at a microbiology research facility in Ganggye, Chagang Province.

A source from a North Korean human rights group told Yonhap News Agency: "[Lee’s] …ostensible reason for defection is that he felt skeptical about his research."

Lee fled to the European country on June 6 via the Philippines. He took a data storage device with him, containing 15 gigabytes of data and information on the inhumane experiments conducted in North Korea.

The North Korean researcher will give testimony and present his evidence to the European Parliament later this month.

[H/T: Yonhap News Agency]