The United States announced on Thursday that North Korea shipped rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, which is controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin and has some 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine.
"We assess that the amount of material delivered to Wagner will not change battlefield dynamics in Ukraine," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
The latest US remarks come amid escalating concerns that the notorious private Russian military firm has been playing an increasingly bigger role in Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.
As per US intelligence officials, North Korea completed an initial arms shipment last month.
British Foreign Minister James Cleverly denounced the North for having reportedly supplied arms to Russia, noting that the "fact that President Putin is turning to North Korea for help is a sign of Russia's desperation and isolation."
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, emphasized the transfer of weapons to the shadowy Russian mercenary group was "despicable" given that Moscow is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Russia was now procuring weapons from the North and Iran to "pursue its war of aggression against Ukraine," she mentioned.
In response, North Korea's Foreign Ministry denied reports of such remarks, saying they were "groundless."
"The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] remains unchanged in its principled stand on the issue of 'arms transaction' between the DPRK and Russia which has never happened," North Korean state news agency KCNA cited a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The spokesperson asserted that it was the US that was "bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons."
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