Pyongyang says it hasn't sold rockets to Moscow, but can if it wants to

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Vladivostok in April 2019. [YONHAP]

North Korea denied that it exported artillery shells or rockets to Russia and called reports of such sales to Moscow a “rumor” aimed at “tarnishing” its reputation.

The statement, issued under the name of the vice director general of the General Bureau of Equipment of Pyongyang’s defense ministry, was carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday.

While claiming Pyongyang has “never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia” and does “not plan to export them,” the North’s defense ministry statement also defended its right to conduct such weapons sales, suggesting that a decision to supply ammunition to Russia would not be anyone else's business.

“Not only the development, production, possession of military equipment, but also their export and import are the lawful right peculiar to a sovereign state, and nobody is entitled to criticize it,” the statement said.

North Korean weapons sales to Russia were confirmed in declassified intelligence reports by the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this month.

The U.S. government has provided few details about the exact nature, timing or size of North Korean weapons deliveries to Russia.

An unnamed U.S. official was quoted by the New York Times as saying that Russia is expected to try to purchase additional North Korean equipment in the future, and that Moscow’s turning to Pyongyang for weapons is a sign that sanctions and export controls imposed by the United States and Europe are hampering its ability to obtain supplies for its war with Ukraine.

Thursday’s statement by the North Korean defense ministry appeared to be partially aimed at ridiculing the United States as well as denying the legitimacy of international sanctions passed by the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) to rein in trade activities that could fund Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile development programs.

“We have never recognized the UNSC unlawful ‘sanctions resolution’ against the DPRK, which was cooked up by the U.S. and its vassal forces,” the statement said, referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea is one of the few states that has officially recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, Ukrainian regions controlled by Russian-backed separatists that Moscow is aiming to annex by possible referenda that have been denounced as illegal by most of Europe, the United States and Canada.

The Donetsk People’s Republic has publicized North Korea’s offer to dispatch workers to aid in the region’s reconstruction once Pyongyang lifts its own Covid-related border restrictions.

North Korea is not the only country that Russia has allegedly turned to for war materiel.

The United States has accused Iran of supplying Russia with drones for use in its war in Ukraine, which have had mixed results.

While the drones are intended to conduct air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare and targeting on the battlefield in Ukraine, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters in August that Russia’s Iranian-made drones had suffered “numerous failures.”

Both North Korea and Iran are already under layers of sanctions for their nuclear programs, and experts believe both have little to lose from helping the Russian war effort.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]