N. Korea claims targeted with anthrax by US
June 12, 2015
Pyongyang's UN Ambassador Ja Song Nam made the complaint to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a formal letter, the contents of which were made public on Friday.
Ja asked the security council to investigate Washington's "biological warfare scheme" after a sample was sent to a US military facility in Osan, South Korea.
"The United States not only possesses deadly weapons of mass destruction ... but also is attempting to use them in actual warfare…," Ja wrote in the letter, dated June 4.
North Korea "strongly requests the Security Council take up the issue of the shipment of anthrax germs in order to thoroughly investigate the biological warfare schemes of the United States," Ja said.
US defense officials revealed in late May that live anthrax samples had been sent after a mistake meant that the bacteria were not killed with gamma rays before dispatch. The live samples were also shipped several other countries, including Australia, Canada, Britain and Japan, as well as 69 labs in 19 US states plus Washington DC.
'Hideous crime aimed at genocide'
However, a statement from North Korea's National Defense Commission, attached to Ja's letter, claimed the particular shipment to its southern neighbor been "the gravest challenge to peace and a hideous crime aimed at genocide."
Neither the Security Council nor the US mission to the UN gave an immediate response to the letter.
Pyongyang is particularly sensitive to US military cooperation with South Korea and strongly objects to joint exercises carried out between the two countries.
North Korea is currently under sanctions imposed by the UN for carrying out nuclear tests and missile launches. The country is banned from trading nuclear and missile technology and from importing luxury goods.
The UN has also added human rights concerns to its agenda on North Korea, after a UN Commission of Inquiry report last year cited abuses comparable to Nazi-era atrocities in Europe.
rc/msh (AP, Reuters)