North Korea’s UN ambassador claims that US is trying to use ‘biological warfare’ against them but US state department calls the allegations ‘ridiculous’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

North Korea has accused the United States of targeting it with anthrax and wants the UN Security Council to look into they called America’s “biological warfare schemes.”

A letter from North Korea’s UN ambassador to the council president and the UN chief, made public Friday, claims that the US “possesses deadly weapons of mass destruction” that it is trying to use against them.

US defense officials disclosed in late May that low concentration samples of live anthrax were shipped to labs in 19 states and four countries.



The spokesman for the current council president, Malaysia, said he had not heard of any initiatives on the council to take up the issue but would inquire further.

North Korea is highly sensitive to the US military presence in South Korea, strongly objecting to annual US-South Korean military exercises.

Ja’s letter says the shipment of live anthrax to South Korea means the US “is attempting to use them in actual warfare” against his country.

State department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters in Washington the allegations were “ridiculous,” and didn’t “merit a response.”

Separately, the Pentagon on Friday added Japan to the list of countries which had received live anthrax samples, saying that a sample had been sent to the US military base of Camp Zama about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Tokyo in 2005 and was destroyed in 2009.

Defense department spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the anthrax, which was sent to Japan for the purpose of testing detection equipment, came from a master lot that was thought to have been inactive but turned out to be active when tested.

“It’s important to note that there currently is no anthrax, activated or inactivated, in Japan at this time,” Warren told a regular Pentagon news briefing.

Five countries outside the United States are now known to have received live anthrax samples: Australia, Canada, South Korea, Britain as well as Japan. Sixty-nine labs in 19 states and Washington DC also received live samples.

The anthrax was supposed to have been killed with gamma rays before being shipped.