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NKorea denies arms deal with Russia

SEOUL: North Korea on Sunday denied providing arms to Moscow after the United States said the nuclear-armed state supplied rockets and missiles to Russia’s private military group Wagner.

Washington earlier this month designated the Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organization,” citing its weapons dealings with Pyongyang in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The White House showed US intelligence photographs of Russian rail cars entering North Korea, picking up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia, according to national security spokesman John Kirby.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a senior North Korean official rejected the accusations, warning that the US will face a “really undesirable result” if it persists in spreading the “selfmade rumor.”

“Trying to tarnish the image of [North Korea] by fabricating a nonexistent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” said Kwon Jong Gun, director-general of the Department of US Affairs.

He also called it “a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine.”

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden promised 31 Abrams tanks, one of the most powerful and sophisticated weapons in the US army, to help Kyiv fight off Moscow’s invasion.

The move drew a rebuke Friday from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who accused Washington of “further crossing the red line” by sending the tanks into Ukraine.

Along with China, Russia is one of the North’s few international friends and has previously come to the regime’s aid.

Other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the only country to recognize the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has long held the line against increasing pressure on nuclear-armed North Korea, even asking for relief from international sanctions for humanitarian reasons.

Kim Jong Un declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear state in September, and the country conducted sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month last year — including firing its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korean soldier fires near border by mistake

A South Korean soldier mistakenly fired a machine gun near the border with North Korea, prompting the military to inform Pyongyang that the shooting was unintentional, a report said Sunday.

Four live rounds were fired during a training exercise along the border in Gangwon province on Saturday evening, Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korean military officials.

All of the bullets landed on the South’s side and no damage was reported.

The military unit immediately informed North Korea that the firings were not intentional and stepped up readiness posture, the officials said.

“No particular signs have been detected from the North’s side, and an investigation is under way over the exact circumstances of the incident,” an unnamed military official told Yonhap.

The two Koreas technically remain at war after fighting was halted by an armistice in 1953, and are separated by the fourkilometer-wide demilitarized zone (DMZ) that runs for 250 kilometers (160 miles) across the Korean peninsula.

Despite its name, the DMZ is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences.

The last time the two sides exchanged fire on the border was in May 2020, when at least four bullets from North Korea hit South Korea’s guard post at the central part of the DMZ, prompting Seoul’s troops to fire back.

North Korean soldiers also shot at a defector in 2017 but the South did not fire back.

Asia And Oceania

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2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281964611857250

The Manila Times