(Bloomberg) — North Korea denied that it has sold arms to Russia and blasted the US and “other hostile forces” for what it saw as spreading rumors that Kim Jong Un’s regime was aiding Moscow as it fought in Ukraine.
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“We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them,” the state’s official Korean Central News Agency cited an unnamed vice director general in the Defense Ministry’s General Bureau of Equipment as saying.
“We condemn the U.S. for thoughtlessly circulating the rumor against the DPRK to pursue its base political and military aim, and we warn the US to stop making reckless remarks pulling up the DPRK and to keep its mouth shut,” the official said, referring to the country’s formal name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
US Says Russia Seeking Weapons From Impoverished North Korea
This month, US officials said Russia wants to buy millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to use in its war against Ukraine, in the latest sign that international sanctions are forcing Moscow to seek help from the nation’s smaller, impoverished neighbor. The UK then said in a Defence Intelligence report that Russia is “almost certainly increasingly sourcing weaponry” from other sanctioned states like North Korea.
Any shipment would be a violation on United Nations sanctions put in place on both countries for their military activities that have ratcheted up global security concerns. The North Korean official said Pyongyang doesn’t recognize the measures against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as “nobody is entitled to criticize” a sovereign state’s right to trade “military equipment.”
North Korea has one of the world’s largest artillery forces and been stockpiling shells for decades. It also shares a land border with Russia connected by rail, but the link was cut at the start of the Covid pandemic and has remained shut since then.
Russia Is Left an Outlier Among World Leaders Gathered at the UN
While the leaders of China and India placed some distance between themselves and Putin at meetings with the Russian leader this month, Kim’s regime has stood my Moscow during the invasion and is one of the few countries that have recognized the Kremlin-controlled “People’s Republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
(Updates with quotes and details.)
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