Anchor: The United States imposed fresh sanctions against Russian entities on Thursday over the nation’s arms transfer with North Korea. The deal has come to the fore in recent days, culminating in a back-and-forth at the United Nations as Moscow and Pyongyang vehemently denied the claims.
Tom McCarthy brings us the latest.

Report: The United States hit three Russian entities and one individual with sanctions on Thursday over the purported transfer of missiles from North Korea that are believed to have been fired into Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the move as he denounced Russia’s war of aggression for inflicting suffering on the Ukrainian people with help from Pyongyang.

He warned that Washington will not hesitate to take further action, following up on its censure of Russia and North Korea in the UN Security Council meeting the preceding day for three separate missile attacks against Ukraine over the last two weeks.

Moscow’s UN ambassador immediately refuted the assertion as false information that lacks evidence, while Pyongyang’s representative, Kim Song, followed up with a response published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Friday.

The envoy blasted the U.S. for drawing North Korea into the discussions at the Council despite what he contended was a lack of relation to the issue at hand, claiming that the move was indicative of Washington finding itself in a predicament.

Kim went on to say that the U.S.’ moves are an attempt to criminalize the relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow in violation of international law, before going on to blame the war on Washington for violating Moscow’s national interests with a confrontational policy.

Despite the denials by the two sides, Ukraine remains adamant that Russia did indeed use North Korean weapons, with an official saying on Friday that a defense ministry analysis of missile debris concluded that it was in fact a KN-23, the North’s version of the Russian Iskander missile.

The military cooperation between North Korea and Russia has purportedly extended to other forms of material, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying on Thursday that the North sent over one million rounds of ammunition.
Tom McCarthy