This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
The United States has voiced concern to China over “destabilizing” actions by North Korea and Russia, said the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson, as it confirmed the deployment of around 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
China, one of North Korea’s few traditional allies, has recently been under growing pressure to serve as a responsible stakeholder as the U.S. and its allies worry that the deployment of said North Korean troops will dangerously escalate the Ukrainian war.
“We have been making clear to China for some time that they have an influential voice in the region, and they should be concerned about steps that Russia has taken to undermine stability. They should be concerned about steps that North Korea has taken to undermine stability and security,” said Matthew Miller during a press briefing on Monday.
The Chinese foreign ministry said last week that it did not have information on the North’s troop deployment to Russia and called for a multilateral solution to the conflict.
“Our position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. We always believe that all parties need to promote the de-escalation of the situation and strive for a political settlement,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Friday.
If Beijing moves beyond the current denial phase and becomes worried about North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine, its role as the main economic and diplomatic benefactor of Kim Jong Un’s regime in Pyongyang gives it many tools, said analysts.
“North Korea still clearly needs China for economic support, which Russia is not in a position to give,” Naoko Aoki of the RAND Corporation think tank told Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin service last week.
“If the past is any guide, China’s pressure on North Korea, if it takes place, is likely to be applied quietly and will be difficult to observe from the outside,” she added.
‘Very dangerous’
The U.S. National Security Council, or NSC, confirmed that North Korea had sent around 10,000 troops to eastern Russia, and they will likely augment Russian forces near Ukraine “over the next several weeks.”
“We believe that North Korea has sent around 10,000 total soldiers to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” a NSC spokesperson said on Monday.
“A portion of those soldiers has already moved closer to Ukraine.”
The spokesperson’s remarks came after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed that North Korean troops had been deployed to Russia’s western front-line Kursk region.
U.S. President Joe Biden highlighted the danger of the deployment in his first public comment on North Korea’s troops, and went on to refer to recent reports of former President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
“Very dangerous, very dangerous,” Biden told reporters when asked about the troops, after casting an early ballot on Monday at the state of Delaware Department of Elections.
“The idea that Kamala’s opponent’s talking to Putin and discussing what should be done … I mean, anyway,” Biden added without elaborating, referring to Trump’s opponent in next week’s U.S. presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris.
‘Happening more rapidly’
Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, or NIS, confirmed that the North’s deployment of units to Russia’s southwestern Kursk region was happening more rapidly than previously anticipated.
Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, Ukraine says.
“We reported to the government that it would take until early December, but it seems that both Russia and North Korea have accelerated their pace since the intelligence became public,” Hong said during a visit to Brussels, leading a South Korean delegation briefing NATO on the North’s troop dispatch.
This month, the NIS said that North Korea was expected to send a total of around 10,000 troops by the end of this year, including some 3,000 troops already dispatched.
Separately, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol the situation was “grave,” saying that North Korean troops’ arrival at the front lines could happen sooner than expected.
Last Thursday, Putin declined to deny or confirm that North Korea had sent troops to assist his army, adding that Russia and North Korea would decide how to implement a pact they struck in June that includes a mutual defense clause to help each other in case of external aggression.
