The United States revealed this Thursday that it has intelligence information that suggests that Russia wants to buy two dozen different weapons from the North Korean dictatorship to use them in the war in the Ukraine and that he has offered food in exchange for that weaponry.
“We have new information that Russia is actively trying to acquire new munitions,” said a White House spokesman, John Kirby, in a telephone press conference.
Furthermore, according to the spokesman, Russia is preparing to send a delegation to North Korea to discuss this new arms-for-food exchange.
According to Kirby, at the center of this new effort is the Slovak citizen Ashot Mkrtychevwho was sanctioned this Thursday by the United States Department of the Treasury for negotiating with the North Korean regime to purchase arms for Russia.
Washington sanctioned Mkrtychev for having, “between late 2022 and early 2023, (…) worked with North Korean officials to obtain more than two dozen types of weapons and munitions for Russia in exchange for materials ranging from commercial aircraft and raw materials to products to send to North Korea,” it said in a statement.
“Russia has lost more than 9,000 heavy military pieces of equipment since the war (in Ukraine) began, and thanks in part to multilateral sanctions and export controls, (President Vladimir) Putin is increasingly desperate to replace it,” he said. Economy and Finance Secretary Janet Yellen, quoted in the statement. “Ploys like the deal sought by this individual show that Putin is turning to providers of last resort like Iran and North Korea,” she added.
Ashot Mkrtychev “confirmed Russia’s readiness to receive military equipment from North Korea” and, in negotiations with senior Russian officials, “the necessary Russian preparations for a proposed agreement were completed and (they) were prepared to receive and transfer materials from Korea.” of the North,” said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The Slovakian also “worked with a Russian person to locate commercial aircraft that could be delivered to North Korea.”
The United States had already accused Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship last year of having sent weapons to Russia.
Specifically, in December, the White House said that the North Korean regime had sent the Russian private company Wagner a weapons pack that includes rockets and infantry missiles.
According to the US government, the sanctions that weigh on Russia have forced the Kremlin to go to other countries with non-democratic governments to access weapons.
About, US says Iran has also sent weapons to Russiaspecifically drones.
In February, the United States revealed intelligence that China was considering sending weapons to Russia, although that exchange has yet to take place. Beijing, for its part, denied those accusations.
(With information from EFE and AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com