Russia trades food for North Korean weapons to wage war in Ukraine

Russia is sending a delegation to North Korea to offer food in exchange for arms in support his war in Ukrainesaid the White House.

As part of the proposed deal, Russia would receive “over two dozen types of weapons and ammunition from Pyongyang,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

He added: “We also understand that Russia is trying to send a delegation to North Korea and that Russia is offering North Korea food in exchange for ammunition.”

The US has previously accused North Korea of ​​supplying weapons to the Russian military. Last November, it said it had information suggesting that Pyongyang was secretly sending a significant number of artillery shells to Russia via shipments to countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Later it was said that North Korea had supplied weapons Russia’s private military group Wagner.

Pyongyang denies the allegations. However, it is currently facing a deep economic crisis and devastating food shortages, which experts say have pushed the reclusive country to the brink of famine.

In January, the US-based program 38 North, which monitors North Korea, warned in a report that “food availability has likely fallen below the absolute minimum in terms of human needs,” concluding that food insecurity was worst since the famine was of the 1990s.

James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretarypreviously said, “The fact that President Putin is turning to North Korea for help is a sign of Russia’s desperation and isolation.”

Earlier Thursday, in another case, the US Treasury Department blacklisted Slovakian Ashot Myrtychev for organizing deals that would allow North Korea to ship arms to Russia in late 2022 and early 2023.

In exchange, Pyongyang reportedly received cash, airliners, goods and raw materials.

The US has also released intelligence to present evidence that Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russia last summer.

In one of Washington’s more controversial claims, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that intelligence agencies were suggesting China was considering supplying Moscow with arms and ammunition, although the US said it has so far seen no evidence it has already done so.

Beijing, which has presented its own peace plan for the Ukraine war, firmly rejected the US allegations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China “will never accept the US pointing fingers at Sino-Russian relations or even coerce us,” adding that “the United States, not China, is endlessly supplying arms to the battlefield.”