North Korea has denied US claims that the country is supplying Russia with weapons in its ongoing war with Ukraine.
In a statement to the Korean Central News Agency, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the US Department of Affairs, accused the US of fabricating an “unsubstantiated rumor of ‘arms trafficking between the DPRK and Russia. ‘, in a foolish attempt to justify its arms offer to Ukraine.”
FILE: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects an air defense unit in the western area, North Korea. On Thursday, December 30, 2021, North Korea called on its 1.2 million soldiers to unite behind leader Kim and defend him with his lives, as the country celebrated the 10th anniversary of his ascension to Supreme Commander of the armed forces.
(Korea Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
“It is an illegal act to question the legitimate right to national defense of a sovereign state,” he said. “In addition, trying to tarnish the image of the DPRK by manufacturing something that does not exist is a serious provocation that can never be allowed and cannot but trigger its reaction.”
The comments came after President Biden said Wednesday that the United States will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of arguments from Washington that they were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.
NORTH KOREA CONDEMNS US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S DECISION TO SEND MATTRESS TANKS TO UKRAINE
Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a member of the State Committee on North Korean Affairs, said the United States was crossing a “red line” by sending the tanks to Ukraine, according to the Agency for Yonhap News. a South Korean media outlet.
FILE: A US Army M1A1 Abrams tank fires up during the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Crystal Arrow 2021 military exercise in Adazi, Latvia.
(REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File photo)
Kwon said the US decision to send tanks demonstrated the country’s allegedly “warped and gangster” way of thinking “which frequently introduces means of nuclear attack on the Korean peninsula under the guise of providing an ‘extended deterrence’ against the ‘provocation’ of someone”.
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“The United States should keep in mind that it will face a really undesirable result if it persists in spreading the self-made rumor against the DPRK,” he said.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
