North denies arms dealing with Russia
Criticises US for sending tanks to Kyiv
SEOUL: North Korea yesterday denied providing arms to Moscow after the United States said the nuclear-armed state supplied rockets and missiles to Russia’s private military group Wagner.
Washington earlier this month designated the Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organisation,” citing its weapons dealings with Pyongyang in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
The White House showed US intelligence photographs of Russian rail cars entering North Korea, picking up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia, according to national security spokesman John Kirby.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a senior North Korean official rejected the accusations, warning that the US will face a “really undesirable result” if it persists in spreading the “self-made rumour”.
“Trying to tarnish the image of (North Korea) by fabricating a nonexistent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” said Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of US Affairs.
He also called it “a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine”.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden promised 31 Abrams tanks, one of the most powerful and sophisticated weapons in the US army, to help Kyiv fight off Moscow’s invasion.
North Korea also yesterday criticised for a second day a US decision to send tanks to Ukraine, calling it an “unethical crime” aimed at perpetuating an unstable international situation.
Washington’s allegations that North Korea has provided arms to Russia are a “groundless rumour” to justify its own military aid to Ukraine, Kwon Chungkeun, director of US affairs at North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
“The US is working hard to supply such offensive weapons as (main battle tanks) to Ukraine at any cost in disregard of the just concern and criticism of the international community,” the statement said. “This is an unethical crime aimed at keeping the international situation unstable.”
The baseless claims of North KoreaRussia arms deals are a “grave provocation that can never be allowed” and perpetuating them will bring a “really undesirable result”, Mr Kwon added.
On Saturday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, denounced US pledges of battle tanks to Ukraine, claiming Washington was “further crossing the red line” to win hegemony by proxy war, KCNA reported.
Nuclear-armed North Korea launched an unprecedented number of missiles last year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US mainland. US and South Korean officials have also warned the North could be preparing for its first test of a nuclear device since 2017.
The White House said in December that North Korea completed an initial arms delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, to shore up Russian forces in Ukraine.
Along with China, Russia is one of the North’s few international friends and has previously come to the regime’s aid.
Other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the only country to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has long held the line against increasing pressure on nuclear-armed North Korea, even asking for relief from international sanctions for humanitarian reasons.
Kim Jong Un declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear state in September, and the country conducted sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month last year — including firing its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.