N. Korea denies US claims it sent artillery shells to Russia

North Korea has denied American claims that it’s shipping artillery shells and ammunition to Russia for use in its war in opposition to Ukraine, and on Tuesday accused the US of mendacity.

The denial follows dozens of weapons tests by North Korea, such as short-variety missiles which can be possibly nuclear-capable and an intercontinental ballistic missile that might target the U.S. Mainland. Pyongyang said it turned into checking out the missiles and artillery so it may “mercilessly” strike key South Korean and U.S. Goals if it selected to.

North Korea has been cozying up to standard best friend Russia in latest years and even hinted at sending people to assist rebuild Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. The United States has accused North Korea, one of the most weaponized nations inside the global, of providing Soviet-technology ammunition such as artillery shells, to top off Russian stockpiles which have been depleted within the Ukraine.Last week, Russia sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a trainload of 30 thoroughbred horses, starting the border with its neighbor for the primary time in 2 1/2 years. Kim is an avid horseman and country media have frequently pictured him galloping on snowy mountain trails astride a white charger. The horses, Orlov trotters, are prized in Russia.Spokespeople of Russia’s Far Eastern Railway advised the kingdom-run information organization Nov. 2 that the primary train headed to North Korea with the 30 horses and said the next educate changed into to carry medicine.

Experts say North Korea can be in search of Russian gas and additionally era transfers and materials needed to boost its military abilties as it pursues greater state-of-the-art weapons systems.

In September, North Korea restarted its freight teach carrier with China, its biggest trading companion, ending a 5-month hiatus.

Last week, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby accused North Korea of covertly offering a “sizable wide variety” of ammunition shipments to Russia. He said the USA believes North Korea was seeking to difficult to understand the transfer path by making it appear the weapons were being sent to countries within the Middle East or North Africa.

“We regard such movements of the U.S. As part of its antagonistic attempt to tarnish the photo of (North Korea) inside the global arena,” an unidentified vice director on the North Korean ministry’s military foreign affairs office stated in a assertion carried through country media.“We yet again make clear that we have in no way had ‘arms dealings’ with Russia and that we haven’t any plan to do so within the destiny,” the vice director said.

In September, U.S. Officers confirmed a newly declassified U.S. Intelligence finding that Russia changed into inside the method of buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea. North Korea later dismissed that document, calling on Washington to forestall making “reckless comments” and to “preserve its mouth shut.”

On Nov. 2, Kirby said the U.S. Has “an idea” of which u . S . Or nations the North can also funnel the guns through however wouldn’t specify. He stated the North Korean shipments are “not going to change the route of the warfare,” citing Western efforts to resupply the Ukrainian military.Slapped with the aid of international sanctions and export controls, Russia in August bought Iranian-made drones that U.S. Officers said had technical problems. For Russia, experts say North Korea is probable any other proper choice for its ammunitions supply, because the North keeps a massive stockpile of shells, many of them copies of Soviet-era ones.

Even as most of Europe and the West has pulled away, North Korea has pushed to enhance members of the family with Russia, blaming the U.S. For the crisis and decrying the West’s “hegemonic policy” as justifying military movement with the aid of Russia in Ukraine to defend itself. In July, North Korea have become the most effective state other than Russia and Syria to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk territories as unbiased.

North Korea’s possible hands supply to Russia might be a contravention of U.N. Resolutions that ban the North from buying and selling weapons with different countries. But it’s not going for North Korea to receive sparkling sanctions for that due to a department on the U.N. Security Council over America’s confrontations with Russia regarding its struggle in Ukraine and its separate strategic competitions with China.