North Korea once again criticized the pledge by the United States to send battle tanks to Ukraine as Russia continued its aggression. Pyongyang said the pledge by Washington to send battle tanks to Ukraine is an “unethical crime.”
North Korean state media outlet KCNA published a statement on Sunday by the North Korean foreign ministry by its director of US affairs Kwon Chung-keun blasting Washington’s pledge to send tanks to Ukraine. Kwon cited the White House’s allegations in December that Pyongyang completed an arms delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to the Russian Wagner mercenary group.
Kwon said the allegations are a “groundless rumor” by the US to justify its sending of aid to Ukraine, according to KCNA.
“The US is working hard to supply such offensive weapons as (main battle tanks) to Ukraine at any cost in disregard of the just concern and criticism of the international community,” said the statement by Kwon. “This is an unethical crime aimed at keeping the international situation unstable.”
Kwon reiterated that the alleged arms deal between Pyongyang and Moscow is a “grave provocation that can never be allowed.”
Kwon’s statement follows remarks by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong, criticizing the new US pledges to send tanks to Ukraine. Kim Yo-jong claimed that Washington was “further crossing the red line” to win hegemony by proxy war. Kim Yo-jong added that North Korea would “stand in the same trench” as Russia against the US.
The criticism comes amidst North Korea’s record number of ballistic missile launches in 2022 amidst flared tensions in the Korean peninsula.
The US has pledged to send Ukraine 31 of its Abrams tanks following Germany’s pledge to send Kyiv its Leopard 2 battle tanks and authorizing other countries to transfer their Leopard tanks to Ukraine. This scrapped a taboo in Western support for Ukraine in pledging to send arms that have an offensive purpose.
Kim Yo-Jong said the US was “escalating the war situation” by sending its tanks to Ukraine, adding that the US and the West have no “right nor justification to slander sovereign states’ exercise of the right to self-defense.”