North Korea on Wednesday rejected U.S. allegations that it is developing biological weapons, saying that the claim is part of Washington's scheme to stifle the regime.
The Trump government's first National Security Strategy released Monday said that the North is pursuing chemical and biological weapons that could also be delivered by missile.
"The DPRK, as a state party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), maintains its consistent stand to oppose development, manufacture, stockpiling and possession of biological weapons," the North's Institute for American Studies, affiliated with the foreign ministry, was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The North became a BWC signatory in 1987.
The institute said that the "groundless" claim by U.S. experts and media is nothing but the country's move to isolate Pyongyang and justify its sanctions and pressure on the regime.
"The more the U.S. clings to the anti-DPRK stifling move...,the more hardened the determination of our entire military personnel and people to take revenge will be...," the report said.
Pyongyang is estimated to have 13 types of pathogens such as anthrax and clostridium botulinum that can be used as biological weapons, according to a 2016 report by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. (Yonhap)