White House Condemns North Korea For Smuggling Military Arms To Russia

On Nov. 2, the White House accused North Korea of secretly shipping a “significant number” of artillery shells to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is closely monitoring North Korea’s covert supply of military arms to Russia, and confirmed that the Russian Defense Ministry was buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea. He said that the U.S. has “an idea” of which country or countries North Korea may send the weapons through and how to respond to it. He further stated that the weapons supplied by North Korea are not going to change the progress of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In July, North Korea became the only country other than Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of two territories, Donetsk and Luhansk, further aligning with Russia in the Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition, North Korea blamed the U.S. for the Ukraine crisis and declared the West’s “hegemonic policy” as excuses for its action in supporting Russia.

According to UN resolutions, North Korea is banned from exporting to or importing weapons from other countries. North Korea’s arms export to Russia has violated the UN resolutions.