Mozambican Government denies UN allegation on DPRK arms purchase

The Mozambican government denied on Wednesday the UN accusation of it for purchasing military weapons and equipment from a trading company in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

More than two weeks ago the UN Security Council experts said in a report that a investment company under the Ministry of Defense of Mozambique paid six million U.S. dollars for DPRK arms, violating UN arms sanctions.

In reply to the UN report, Mozambican Defense Minister Atanasio M'tumuke said his government had nothing to fear because it had never bought arms from DPRK.

"These are false accusations. Mozambique has never bought arms from DPRK. We look forward to the investigation from the United Nations and we hope that they apologize for the allegations" after the investigation, said M'tumuke at the end of the Frelimo Party's 11th Congress that began Tuesday in Maputo.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Oldemiro Baloi also rejected the UN allegations, but admitted that Mozambique has been cooperating with DPRK for many years.

"It is not true that we have bought weapons from DPRK recently. The only time we acquired weapons from it was the early days of the country's independence, and this never happened again. But we maintain cooperation with DPRK," said Baloi.

According to the report, Mozambique was among the 11 African countries that violate the UN arms embargo on DPRK, which include Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Benin, Botswana, Mali, and Zimbabwe.

source: Xinhua