Subject to accusations from Washington, the Pyongyang regime wanted Wednesday to clearly deny military aid to Moscow. North Korea has denied supplying weapons to Russia, state media reported, weeks after the United States said the Kremlin was looking to the country to replenish its stockpiles depleted by the invasion. ‘Ukraine.
“We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we do not plan to export any,” an official from the Defense Ministry’s General Equipment Office said in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Millions of cartridges, rockets and shells”, according to the Americans
The statement comes after the White House said earlier in September that Russia was buying artillery shells and rockets from North Korea for use in its war in Ukraine. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States believed the purchases “could include literally millions of cartridges, rockets and artillery shells”. However, citing declassified US intelligence, he stressed at the time that the purchases had not yet been completed and there was no indication that these weapons were being used in Ukraine.
Moscow ally Pyongyang claimed in the statement that Washington and “other hostile forces were spreading a rumor of arms trafficking” between North Korea and Russia. “We warn the United States to stop making reckless remarks,” the regime continued, while stressing that North Korea retains the right to export military equipment.
The White House further indicated that the purchase of artillery munitions from the isolated North Korean government, as well as an agreement to buy military drones from Iran, showed that Russia was in dire straits after months of Western economic and technological sanctions aimed at crippling its war machine.