North Korea’s defense ministry on Tuesday described US allegations that Pyongyang was supplying artillery ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine as “baseless,” North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA reported.
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Tensions are rising on the Korean peninsula after a spate of North Korean weapons tests over the past week (at least 23 missiles fired in one day plus an ICBM launch) as the United States and South Korea just completed their largest joint flight exercises there.
Pyongyang’s denials come in response to allegations made by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby last week. He claimed North Korea had “covertly” sent a “significant number” of shells to Russia “to make it appear they were being sent to the Middle East or Africa.”
The spokesman said Washington is currently trying to determine whether this North Korean military aid was actually received from the Russians.
“Recently, the United States continues to spread an unfounded rumor about ‘arms deals’ between the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea) and Russia,” the deputy director for military foreign affairs of the North Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, quoted by the agency KCNA.
“We want to make it clear once again that there have never been arms treaties + with Russia and that there are no foreseeable future ones either,” adds the press release and sees this “rumor as a “hostile attempt to tarnish the weapons”. DPRK’s image in the international arena.”
John Kirby added last week that he “does not believe that the equipment that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) is receiving or will receive will be game-changing in any tangible way on the battlefield.”
He also felt that the alleged North Korean aid was an indication of Pyongyang’s decisions, but also of Russia’s “shortages and needs.”