China has remained silent on the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to Russia in recent weeks.

The United States and its allies view the development, which followed the signing in June of the first military agreement between Russia and North Korea since the Cold War, as a dangerous escalation of tensions. Vladimir Putinthe 33-month war against Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Still, China is likely unsettled by this new phase of the growing alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang, which since last September has shipped thousands of containers believed to contain munitions and other materials to help replenish the forces’ stockpiles. Russians.

THE Pentagon There are now estimated to be between 11,000 and 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, with 10,000 already stationed in the Kursk border region. Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive there in August and now hold some 250 square miles of territory.

Some North Koreans have already seen combat, The New York Times a Ukrainian official was quoted as saying, while a US official told the newspaper that a “significant” number had been killed.

“The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and Russia are two independent sovereign states, and how to develop bilateral relations is their own business,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the DPRK Embassy. China in the United States. News week.

China’s position remains unchanged, Liu said. “We hope that the parties will work to ease tensions and remain committed to the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.” He added: “China will continue to play a constructive role to this end.”

News week contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry and the North Korean Embassy in China by email for comment.

Beijing has presented itself as a neutral party to the war while censoring anti-war comments on Chinese social media and supplying dual-use goods to Russia, its heavily sanctioned partner. China also provides a key economic lifeline due to discounted sales of Russian natural gas and oil.

China also exerts considerable influence over Kim Jong Un regime, which for decades propped up its state-controlled economy to prevent a regime collapse that could push millions of North Korean refugees across the Chinese border.

At the same time, China used its seat on the UN Security Council to pass sanctions after Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, detonated North Korea’s first missile. nuclear bomb in 2006.

North Korea’s entry into the war in Ukraine poses a dilemma for the Asian superpower.

“On the one hand, it knows that it has long been a more important partner of North Korea than Russia, especially economically, and that it wants to maintain its influence,” said Edward Howell, an official of North Korea. University of Oxford lecturer and Korea Foundation Fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House.

“On the other hand, he will be unhappy with the increasing nuclearization of North Korea and, also, the strengthening of bilateralism and trilateralism between the United States, South Korea and Japan,” he said. declared. News week.

China remains opposed to the US-led global order, Howell stressed. But at the same time, “Beijing has enough internal problems to manage that it does not want to get dragged into another conflict.”

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the U.S. German Marshall Fund, acknowledged that China fears its influence over North Korea will be diluted by Kim’s growing ties to Russia.

Another likely concern is that in exchange for fresh troops, Russia will provide North Korea with more advanced technologies for its missile and nuclear weapons program.

This “could serve Chinese interests if it avoids a Russian defeat and ends the war that favors Moscow, but the presence of North Korean troops in Europe could fuel deeper European involvement in the security of the East Asia, which Beijing opposes,” Glaser said. News week.

“For now, however, while the Chinese have concerns, they are not alarmed enough to take action to restrict North Korea, and Xi is unlikely to warn Putin because he highly values to this relationship,” she said.