North Korea denies supplying weapons to Russia

North Korea says it has never ever sold weapons to Russia and has no plans to do so in the future, following US reviews that Moscow has been turning to Pyongyang to replenish stockpiles.

US authorities said earlier that will The ussr could purchase rockets and artillery covers from North Korea.

They said such movements, along with alleged buys of Iranian weaponry, showed Western sanctions were impeding Russia’s efforts in the Ukraine war.

Moscow refused the reports at the time.

Any arms motion between the two nations would be in breach of United Nations sanctions.

On Thursday, in the statement carried simply by North Korean state media KCNA, an unnamed official with North Korea’s defence ministry said: “We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we’ll not plan to foreign trade them. ”

It accused the US, and other “hostile forces”, associated with spreading rumours to “pursue its bottom political and army aims”.

In early Sept, an US Condition Department spokesman mentioned Russia’s North Korean purchases “could include literally millions of models, rockets and artillery shells. ”

Yet National Security Authorities spokesman John Kirby later appeared to stipulation that statement, simply by saying the buys had not yet been completed and there is no evidence to suggest the weapons would be used in the particular Russian-led war against Ukraine.

Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine in February has established costly for its military, despite using advanced weapons such as cruise trip missiles. Ukrainian pushes, using Western weaponry that have been funnelled into the country in recent months, have inflicted heavy loss.

Many of North Korea’s Russian-designed weapons hail from the Soviet era, but it has missiles similar to Russian types.

In July, Northern Korea was one of the few countries that formally recognised two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. In retaliation, Ukraine cut-off all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

Earlier this month, Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to expand their “comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations” in a letter in order to his counterpart Betty Jong-un.