North Korea on Sunday accused the United States (US) of using biological warfare in Ukraine, over four months after Washington dismissed similar claims by Moscow.
The state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a press release on Sunday that “the US has not only set up many biological labs in tens of countries and regions, including Ukraine” but has also disregarded international treaties and agreements and “sped up the development of bio-chemical weapons threatening the life and security of mankind.” “Most of those biological labs are intensively located in areas around the anti-US independent countries,” it claimed.
The article further called Washington “an evil empire” and “a vicious sponsor of biological terrorism,” which is “throwing mankind into destruction.” It also claimed that “for mankind to live in peace free from calamity,” it would have to “settle accounts” with Washington’s “crimes.”
North Korea's support for Russia's conspiracies about biological weapons in Ukraine has historical antecedents
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) July 24, 2022
North Korea, the Soviet Union and China banded together after the Korean War with claims of US biological weapons use
Pyongyang alleged that Russia had discovered evidence of such US-run laboratories in Ukraine, referring to unspecified “discovered documents, photos and evidence” which show that “the US has set up 46 secret biological labs in Ukraine over the past 20 years.
It asserted that these laboratories form part of a $200 million strategy by the US to step up the “UP-8” plan for developing hemorrhagic fever virus and hantann virus” in order to carry out “research into an epidemic disease capable of striking individual countries” and agricultural fields in the region.
It added that the US “denied their bio-chemical warfare crimes for the past seven decades from the 1950s,” and claimed that Hepatitis-A and West Nile Fever cases “broke out and spread” in Ukraine shortly after an epidemic research programme in the country. It further asserted that Washington has “concealed data, materials, facilities, and data on such programmes in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa and “left dangerous biological waste in residential areas.”
It also drew parallels between how the US has claimed that Russia plans to use biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine to how Washington has described Pyongyang as a “biochemical weapon developer” and a “WMD (weapons of mass destruction) perpetrator.
In addition, the rogue state appeared to claim that various virus and disease outbreaks across the world over the past few years can be attributed to the US, accusing it of biological warfare.
The statement echoes past allegations made against the US by Russia. In March, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine, in partnership with the US, was running a secret “military biological programme.”
According to Zakharova, Russian intelligence gained access to documents that showed the Ukrainian Health Ministry ordering its biological labs to immediately eradicate dangerous pathogens such as anthrax, rabbit fever, and cholera from its store. She said such actions were in violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, without providing further details on the documents.
Echoing Russia’s claims, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also urged the US to provide a complete account of its domestic and international “biological military activities” that could be verified multilaterally.
North Korea has joined Russia and China in supporting conspiracies about US biological weapons creation in Ukraine
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) July 24, 2022
This follows North Korea's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk republics, and underscores how the Ukraine war has strengthened Russia-North Korea relations
Refuting the allegations, the US Department of State retorted at the time that Russia and China were spreading “outright lies” said the Kremlin’s accusations were likely rooted in the fact that Moscow was likely using or had plans to use such weapons itself. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Moscow has a “track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that [Moscow] itself is perpetrating.”
Price also affirmed that the US was in full compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, adding that the country does not produce or possess such weapons anywhere. He thus called Russia’s accusations “total nonsense,” highlighting Moscow’s own violations of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Convention. Price also reasoned that Russia could be spreading this disinformation to create pretexts to justify more “premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified” attacks on Ukraine.
Moreover, the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General of Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, also confirmed in March that the international watchdog “was not aware of any biological weapons program in Ukraine.”
China and North Korea, have both been accused of amplifying Russian propaganda since the onset of the Ukraine war. Last month, a US State Department spokesperson slammed China for supporting Russian propaganda on the invasion of Ukraine following a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“Nations that side with Vladimir Putin will inevitably find themselves on the wrong side of history,” the spokesperson asserted, adding that Washington continues to keep a close eye on Beijing’s engagements with Moscow.
Furthermore, North Korea has recognised the independence of the Russia-backed Ukrainian breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and echoed Russian claims that the US is using the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to “contain rivals” such as China and Russia and “gratify [its] wild ambition for world domination.”