The United States is calling on China, which maintains relations with Pyongyang, to intervene amid US concerns about North Korean troops being sent to Russia and to put pressure on the North Koreans to back down, officials said, UNN reports citing CNN.
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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan "has directed the U.S. government to engage with China and organize efforts to get other countries to also engage with China about our concerns about the DPRK sending troops to Russia and the implications of that," a U.S. official told CNN.
"We have reached out to China on this issue to make it clear that we are concerned about this, and that they should be concerned about these destabilizing actions by two of their neighbors, Russia and North Korea," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
However, Western officials are not optimistic that China will interfere with North Korea's plans, the sources said. According to a NATO official, China continues to be a "critical factor" in Russia's military efforts and continues to provide Russia's defense industry with significant amounts of dual-use goods, such as microelectronics and machine tools that can be used to build weapons.