North Korea on Wednesday denied supplying weapons to Russia, state media reported, weeks after the United States said Moscow was looking to Pyongyang to replenish stockpiles depleted by the Ukraine invasion.
The statement comes after the White House said in early September that Russia was buying artillery shells and rockets from communist North Korea for its war in Ukraine.
“A Rumor of Arms Trafficking”
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 that there was no indication that these weapons were being used in Ukraine.
Moscow’s ally Pyongyang said in the statement that Washington and “other hostile forces are spreading a rumor of arms trafficking” between North Korea and Russia.
The White House said the isolated government’s purchase of artillery ammunition from North Korea, as well as a deal to buy military drones from Iran, showed Russia was in dire straits after months of Western economic and technological sanctions aimed at crippling his war machine.
Source: BFM TV
