North Korea is accusing the US of spreading the Ebola virus, claiming it has been “bent on the development of bio-weapons” in order to achieve world supremacy.

The secretive state reacted strongly to the Ebola outbreak by closing its border to tourists and quarantining anyone who does enter.

Now, a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is claiming an aide to ex-President Reagan informed them the US had invented a progenitor of Ebola virus “for the purpose of launching a biological warfare”.

The aide was named as Roberts, who The Washington Post said could be a reference to Paul Craig Roberts, an econmoist.

Mr Roberts recently published a blog post entitled ‘Is The US Government The Master Criminal Of Our Time?’ which cited work published by two academics on Ebola.

In pictures: Life in North Korea Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Life in North Korea In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Boys play soccer in the town of Hyesan in North Korea's Ryanggang province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea A group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan, North Korea AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are illuminated on a building side as the sun rises over Pyongyang. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea A North Korean man pushes his bicycle to a village in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean residents walk on a road along a river in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea The remains of lunch sits on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. AP

Only a few weeks after a UN resolution condemned the country’s human right’s record, The KCNA criticised the US for its own human rights record.

The article said the US had given $140 million (£89 million) to a pharmaceutical company for research into the virus and chose Africa as a bio-weapon testing ground. It credited this claim to an unnamed Liberian professor.

It also claimed that the “US Department of Health and Human Services” admitted that the US “imperialists” have long conducted “vivisections with fatal epidemics, inflicting untold sufferings on mankind”.

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It added: “Russian, Singaporean and American newspapers criticised that the US developed anti-Ebola virus vaccine through experiment on Ebola contagion, but has prevented this vaccine from being known to the world, only for its own interests.”