The US government has unveiled that it has talked to China about North Korea’s dispatch of soldiers to Russia, which is continuing its invasion of Ukraine.
It apparently urged China, which has been a patron of the North, to exert its influence in a bid to avoid the situation destabilizing further.
US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that they have communicated with Chinese officials about the matter and told them that the United States is concerned about it.
Miller said the US side has been making clear to China that the country has an “influential voice in the region.” He said US officials have also told Beijing that they ought to be concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea.
Also on Monday, Deputy Press Secretary of the US Defense Department, Sabrina Singh, said in a briefing that Pyongyang is believed to have sent around 10,000 soldiers to train in eastern Russia. She added that the troops will “probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks.”
She did not give details about where the North Korean troops are believed to be deployed, but said “a portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine.”
She said the US is increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western region of Kursk near the border with Ukraine.