US concerned over North Korea’s plan to deliver more weapons to Russia

WASHINGTON - The United States is concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more weapons to Russia, a US State Department spokesman said on Monday, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster strategic cooperation with Moscow.

Earlier on Monday, the country’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said

Mr Kim made the pledge in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin

marking Russia’s National Day.

Mr Kim called for “closer strategic cooperation” with Moscow, “holding hands firmly with the Russian President, in conformity with the common desire of the peoples of the two countries to fulfil the grand goal of building a powerful country”, KCNA said.

The State Department spokesman said despite Pyongyang’s denials that it had sold weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, the US had confirmed that

North Korea had completed an arms delivery,

including infantry rockets and missiles, to the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group in November 2022.

“We are concerned that the DPRK is planning to deliver more military equipment to Russia,” the spokesman added, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea has sought to forge closer relations with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, blaming the “hegemonic policy” and “high-handedness” of the US and the West.

The US said in March it had new information that Russia was actively seeking to acquire additional weapons from North Korea in exchange for food aid.

In March, Washington imposed sanctions on a Slovakian man it accused of trying to arrange the sale of more than two dozen types of North Korean weapons and munitions to Russia to help Moscow replace military equipment lost in its war with Ukraine. REUTERS