Head of Russia's Wagner group dismisses talk of N. Korean weapons as gossip

FILE PHOTO: General view of the "PMC Wagner Centre", associated with the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ahead of its opening in Saint Petersburg, Russia October 31, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Russak

(Reuters) - The head of private Russian military company the Wagner Group on Thursday dismissed as "gossip and speculation" a U.S. assertion that it had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea.

"Everyone knows that North Korea has not been supplying any weapons to Russia for a long time. And no such efforts have even been made," Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement.