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North Korea again denies being a weapons supplier to the Wagner Group. Photos/Illustrations
SEOUL – North Korea (North Korea) again denied having provided weapons to Russia . Previously, United States of America (US) accuses the nuclear-armed state of supplying rockets and missiles to Russia’s private military group, the Group Wagner .
Washington earlier this month designated Wagner’s group a “transnational criminal organization”, citing its arms deal with Pyongyang that violates UN Security Council resolutions.
The White House showed US intelligence photos of a Russian train entering North Korea, where national security spokesman John Kirby said it picked up a payload of infantry rockets and missiles and returned to Russia.
Read: US Shows Evidence of North Korea Supplying Weapons to the Wagner Group
In a statement carried by the country’s official KCNA news agency, a senior North Korean official rejected the accusations. He then warned that the US would face completely undesirable results if it continued to spread self-made rumours.
“Trying to tarnish (North Korea’s) image by fabricating something that doesn’t exist is a grave provocation that can never be tolerated and it cannot but trigger a reaction,” said the director general of the US Department of Affairs, Kwon Jong-gun.
He also called it a stupid US attempt to justify an arms aid offer to Ukraine.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden pledged 31 Abrams tanks, one of the most powerful and advanced weapons in the US army, to help Kiev fight off an invasion of Moscow.
The move drew a rebuke from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who accused Washington of going too far over a red line by sending tanks to Ukraine.
Earlier, at the end of last year, the White House said that the Wagner Group had received a shipment of weapons from North Korea to help reinforce Russian troops in Ukraine, in a sign of the group’s increasing role in the conflict.
