DPRK Slams US ‘Harassers of Peace’ Over Delivery of ATACMS Missiles to Zelensky ‘Puppet Clique’

A Defense Department spokesperson confirmed to Sputnik last week that the Pentagon had provided long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles to Ukraine at President Biden’s direction as part of an arms aid package announced in March. Russia has repeatedly warned the US about the escalatory threats posed by the delivery of such weapons.

The discreet delivery of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine won’t strategically alter the situation on the battlefield, but does signal Washington’s devious and warmongering nature, the North Korean Defense Ministry’s Department of Foreign Military Affairs has said.

“The US has secretly supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, sparking off uneasiness and concern of the international community,” the Ministry said in a statement published in the official Korean Central News Agency on Monday.

“The US administration, which had kept itself aloof from the delivery of long-range missiles, saying that it did not encourage Ukraine’s strike[s] on the Russian mainland, has betrayed more clearly its true colors as a harasser of peace aggravating war by providing Ukraine with such missiles,” the statement said.

Slamming Washington’s decision to deliver depleted uranium ammunition, cluster bombs, main battle tanks and now long-range missiles “to their lackeys” in Kiev “in a bid to turn the tide” on the battlefield, the North Korea Defense Ministry expressed confidence that ATACMS “will never tip the scale in favor of Ukraine on the battlefield,” even though their delivery will “result in fanning the reckless confrontational hysteria of the Zelensky puppet clique.”

“The current US administration boasts that its supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine will make the US safer, but it is only a matter of time for the world to see the US getting more vulnerable and Washington’s defeat on the Ukrainian battlefield. The US can never defeat the heroic Russian army and people with any latest weaponry or military support,” the statement concluded.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name) has offered strong diplomatic support for Russia from the opening days of conflict in Ukraine in 2022, becoming the third country in the world (after Russia and Syria) to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk’s People’s Republics in the summer of 2022, and recognizing the fall 2022 referendums on the incorporation of the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye into Russia.

“We maintain close and fruitful cooperation with Pyongyang within the United Nations and other multilateral organizations,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in January, commenting on the state of bilateral relations. “Definitely, we always support North Korea at the UN platform and highly appreciate your similar stance in support of Russia’s position, including on matters related to our special military operation in Ukraine,” he added.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un embarked on a rare visit abroad to Russia in September 2023, touring the Russian Far East and meeting with President Putin for talks on expanding bilateral cooperation in areas ranging from agriculture, aviation and infrastructure, to education, space exploration, logistics and military-technical collaboration. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Lavrov visited Pyongyang in July and October, respectively.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister in charge of Russian affairs Im Chon Il said last week that the Ukrainian battlefield has become a "graveyard of various weaponry bragged about by the US and NATO," and that the $61 billion in Ukraine-related funding passed by Congress to continue the anti-Russian proxy war was "just a mind-bending drug for buoying up for a moment the Zelensky clique gripped with fear resulting from its ever-worsening position on the battlefield."