North Korea Blames U.S. for Ukraine 'Bloodshed' after Wagner Arms Reports

North Korea has blamed the United States for the ongoing "bloodshed" in Ukraine amid reports that Pyongyang has already supplied Russian regular forces—and perhaps notorious Wagner Group mercenaries—with weapons to aid their stalled invasion.

On Thursday, the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported that North Korea sent military equipment including artillery shells to Russia via rail on November 20. Also on Thursday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Pyongyang has already sent arms—including infantry rockets and missiles—to Ukraine for use by the Wagner Group.

North Korea's foreign ministry released a statement on Friday dismissing the Japanese report and denying it has sent any weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, though did not mention the Wagner Group specifically.

"The Japanese media's false report that the DPRK offered munitions to Russia is the most absurd red herring, which is not worth any comment or interpretation," a ministry spokesperson said in the English-language statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The DPRK remains unchanged in its principled stand on the issue of 'arms transaction' between the DPRK and Russia which has never happened," the spokesperson added.

"The international community will have to focus on the U.S. criminal acts of bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons and equipment on a large scale, rather than lending an ear to the groundless theory of 'arms transaction' between the DPRK and Russia cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes.

"Taking this opportunity, I would like to say that the Russian people are the bravest people with the will and ability to defend the security and territorial integrity of their country without any others' military support."

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin—an influential oligarch and ally of President Vladimir Putin—denied Kirby's allegation.

"Everyone knows that North Korea has not been supplying any weapons to Russia for a long time," Prigozhin said Thursday in a statement carried by Reuters. "No such efforts have even been made," added Prigozhin, dismissing the reports as "gossip and speculation."

Known as "Putin's chef" due to the fortune he made from Kremlin catering contracts, Prigozhin for years built and operated Wagner while publicly disavowing any links to the group.

Prigozhin has moved more into the spotlight since the February invasion, becoming a key cheerleader for the so-called "special military operation" and proudly taking up the mantle of Wagner owner, even fronting the group's recruitment drive among Russia's prison population.

Wagner—which the White House said may now have as many as 50,000 fighters—has been leading the costly assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, an operation intended as a demonstration that the group can succeed in difficult operations beyond the capabilities of Russia's regular forces.

Russia has maintained that it has no need for military equipment from other nations to support its bogged-down offensives in Ukraine. But multiple media reports and evidence from the battlefield have indicated Russian arms purchases—or attempted purchases—from North Korea, Iran, Belarus, and China.

Belarus' weapon, vehicle, and ammunition transfers to Russia are well documented, as is the presence of Iranian drones in Russian use in Ukraine, regardless of the ongoing denials from Tehran. U.S. intelligence said in September that Moscow was already buying millions of shells from Pyongyang.