U.S. monitoring North Korea's provision of artillery shells to Russia

Department of Defense spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder answers questions during a daily press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The United States is working with its allies and partners to monitor North Korea's provision of artillery shells to Russia, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder declined to comment on whether the U.S. was seeking to interdict the North Korean shipments.

"I don't want to get into specific conversations with allies and partners. Certainly, we have flagged concerns about North Korea, and we will continue to work with our allies and partners when it comes to anything that could destabilize or cause issues in the region," he told a press briefing.

"I don't want to speak for our allies," he added when asked if any U.S. allies may try to stop the shipments. "Again, it's something that we will continue to look at very closely."
The defense department spokesman earlier said that the North was trying to covertly provide a "significant number of artillery shells" to Russia for use in Ukraine while obfuscating their destination by funneling them through third countries in North Africa or the Middle East.

"I don't have any specific updates to provide other than, again, [that] we do assess that Russia is seeking to obtain ammunition from North Korea and that North Korea is looking to covertly provide that, again as you highlighted, through North Africa and the Middle East," said Ryder.

Pyongyang has dismissed the U.S. report as a groundless rumor aimed at tarnishing its image, claiming it has never sold any weapons to Russia.

State Department Press Secretary Ned Price has said the North was seeking to provide "millions" of artillery shells to Moscow.

Ryder insisted the alleged ammunition deal between Russia and North Korea showed how isolated the two countries are.

"It's just indicative of the fact that Russia finds itself having to deal with countries like Iran and North Korea in terms of replenishing its own stocks," said the Pentagon spokesman.

He said the United States, on the other hand, is working with a "lot of different countries," when asked about a potential ammunition purchase deal with South Korea.

"What I would say is that the U.S. worked with a lot of different countries, in terms of working with their defense industrial base, to identify opportunities to purchase munitions when it comes to not only providing them to Ukraine but also replenishing one another's stocks," Ryder said.

A news report earlier suggested that the United States was seeking to purchase artillery shells from South Korea to be delivered to Ukraine.

Seoul's Defense Ministry has confirmed ongoing discussions between the United States and a South Korean defense firm over a possible deal but dismissed possible delivery of South Korean weapons to Ukraine, saying the discussions were being held on the premise that the munitions will be used by the United States.

Yonhap