North Korea’s National Defence Commission (NDC) has accused the U.S. of preparing for germ and biological warfare on the peninsula in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday.

The statement from North Korea’s most powerful military body refers to recent revelations that the U.S. may have sent live samples of the deadly anthrax bacteria to an Air Force base in South Korea between March 2014 and April 2015.

“The world should brand the scheme of the U.S., which rules out even the preparations for a germ warfare which is strictly banned internationally, as the gravest challenge