North Korea blames U.S. for Ebola outbreak

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- North Korean officials are publicly blaming the United States for masterminding the deadly Ebola outbreak that began earlier this year in West Africa.

According to an article published Saturday by state-run Korean Central News Agency, "the U.S. developed a progenitor of Ebola virus at bio-weapon institutes built in West African countries for the purpose of launching a biological warfare."

The World Health Organization reported Sunday that 6,928 people have died from the current outbreak.

KCNA claimed that enraged North Korea citizens were calling for the United States to be brought before an international court and tried for "flagrant human rights violations."

The Ministry of Higher Education's Kim Yong Suk also contrasted America's reputation as a human rights defender with the recent high-profile shootings of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, and a 12-year-old black child in Ohio who was holding a toy gun.

Pyongyang's claim regarding Ebola and calls for the United States to appear before an international tribunal are likely in response to a recent United Nations resolution condemning North Korea for human rights abuses. Demonstrators at a mass rally in Pyongyang on Nov. 24 reportedly blamed the United States for sponsoring the resolution and countered that America is a human rights abuser.

The nonbinding U.N. resolution was written by the European Union and Japan based on a damning U.N. Commission of Inquiry report issued in February. The report found North Korean leaders responsible for "widespread, systematic and gross" human rights violations and recommended that the International Criminal Court consider the allegations and evidence of "crimes against humanity."

The resolution was passed with a recommendation that North Korean officials be referred to the ICC, an amendment the North Korean delegation sought unsuccessfully to remove.