PARIS (AFP) - North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles in the latest in a flurry of sanctions-busting weapons tests, South Korean officials said Friday, hours after Washington accused Pyongyang of delivering arms to the Russian private military group Wagner.
Friday’s missile launches follow a year of unprecedented tests by the North, including the launch of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
Pyongyang also tested what it described as a new rocket engine last week, and claimed this week it had developed new capabilities to take images from space.
“Our military spotted two short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea into the East Sea from the Sunan area of Pyongyang at around 16:32 (0732 GMT) today,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
Friday’s missile test came hours after the White House said Pyongyang had delivered arms to the Russian private military group Wagner.
Disclosing the delivery on Thursday US time, the White House called Wagner a “rival” for power to the defense and other ministries in the Kremlin.
The Wagner group is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman once called “Putin’s chef” for his work catering dinners for the powerful leader before and after he became the Russian president.
Prigozhin promptly dismissed the White House’s report as “gossip and speculation”.
Earlier, Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun also reported that North Korea had shipped munitions, including artillery shells, to Russia via train through their border last month and that additional shipments were expected in the coming weeks.
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean foreign ministry denied conducting any arms transaction with Russia, saying the story was “cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes”.
The ministry described Tokyo Shimbun’s report as “the most absurd red herring, which is not worth any comment or interpretation”. It did not comment on Washington’s allegations and did not refer to the Wagner group.