North Korea "strongly requests" the U.N. Security Council to investigate the alleged "biological warfare schemes" of the U.S., which, the country said involved targeting it with live anthrax. The demand was made after the U.S. sent live anthrax samples to the U.S. military air base at Osan, South Korea.
Ja Song Nam, North Korea's U.N. ambassador, wrote a letter to the U.N. Security Council and the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in June 4, stating that the U.S. has "deadly weapons of mass destruction," referring to the anthrax sample sent to South Korea, and is "attempting to use them in actual warfare" against them, ABC News reported.
Ja attached a statement from the National Defense Commission of North Korea saying that the world should consider the U.S.' shipment of live anthrax to different locations as "the gravest challenge to peace and a hideous crime aimed at genocide," Reuters reported.
The Pentagon said in May that it sent samples of the bacteria from the Utah military base to 69 laboratories in 19 states and five countries, including South Korea, Canada, Australia, Britain and Japan. However, the bacteria were supposed to have been killed with gamma rays before shipment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested the samples and found that they contained low concentrations of live anthrax.
The U.S. is now conducting investigations to determine if the shipments were a result of quality control problems from the Utah military base. However, Washington has dismissed North Korea's allegations and feels no need to respond.
"The allegations are ridiculous. They don't merit a response," U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said, according to Reuters.
A spokesman for Malaysia, the council president, said that the council currently does not have any initiative to investigate the issue but they would make inquiries into the matter.
Anthrax is considered as a Tier 1 biological agent because it presents "the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties," according to the CDC.
