North Korea on Sunday denied offering arms to Moscow after the United States mentioned the nuclear-armed state equipped rockets and missiles to Russia’s personal navy group Wagner.

Washington earlier this month designated the Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organisation”, citing its weapons dealings with Pyongyang in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The White House confirmed US intelligence pictures of Russian rail vehicles coming into North Korea, choosing up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia, based on nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby.

In an announcement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a senior North Korean official rejected the accusations, warning that the US would face a “really undesirable result” if it persevered in spreading the “self-made rumour”.

“Trying to tarnish the image of (North Korea) by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” mentioned Kwon Jong Gun, director normal of the Department of US Affairs.

He additionally referred to as it “a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine”.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden promised 31 Abrams tanks, one of the vital highly effective and complicated weapons within the US military, to assist Kyiv battle off Moscow’s invasion.

The transfer drew a rebuke Friday from Kim Yo Jong, the highly effective sister of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, who accused Washington of “further crossing the red line” by sending the tanks into Ukraine.

During a gathering with South Korean international minister Park Jin in Seoul on Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged considerations about Pyongyang’s “reckless missile tests and nuclear programmes” and the ramifications of the Ukraine conflict in South Korea.

“We also know that North Korea is providing military support to the Russian war efforts with the rockets and missiles,” he added.

Along with China, Russia is likely one of the North’s few worldwide associates and has beforehand come to the regime’s help.

Other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the one nation to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist areas in japanese Ukraine.

Russia, one of many 5 everlasting members of the UN Security Council, has lengthy held the road in opposition to growing strain on nuclear-armed North Korea, even asking for aid from worldwide sanctions for humanitarian causes.

Kim Jong Un declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear state in September, and the nation performed sanctions-busting weapons exams practically each month final yr — together with firing its most superior intercontinental ballistic missile.