North Korea on Sunday denied supplying arms to Moscow after Washington accused it of delivering rockets and missiles to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, engaged in Ukraine.
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Last week, White House Security Council spokesman John Kirby released US intelligence footage showing alleged Russian train cars returning from North Korea loaded with military equipment, including rockets for Wagner.
In the process, the United States designated Wagner as a “
criminal organization
” and declared to transmit these recordings to the UN as part of the sanctions aimed at Pyongyang.
“A serious provocation”
On Sunday, a senior North Korean government official denounced "
a stupid attempt to justify
" future arms shipments to Ukraine by Washington, which on Thursday promised 31 Abrams tanks to Kiev.
Quoted by the official KCNA news agency, the director general of the North Korean American Affairs Department, Kwon Jong Gun, dismissed this "
rumor created from scratch
" and warned the United States that they would expose themselves to a "
truly undesirable outcome
" if they continued to spread it.
"
Trying to tarnish the image of (North Korea) by manufacturing something that does not exist is a serious provocation that can never be allowed and can only trigger a reaction
," he added.
On Friday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, also criticized promises to send arms to Ukraine by the United States, accusing them of "
going even further red line
”.
Russia, which is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has long argued against tougher international sanctions against North Korea and even called for them to be eased on humanitarian grounds.
Kim Jong Un declared in 2022 that he wanted his country to have the most powerful nuclear force in the world, describing in September as “
irreversible
” the status of nuclear power of the North.
