US calls on silent China to use influence on Russia, North Korea

WASHINGTON (AP) The United States and South Korea have called on China to use its influence over Russia and North Korea to prevent an escalation after Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow in the war against Ukraine. So far, Beijing has remained silent.

In a rare meeting earlier this week, three senior U.S. diplomats met with China's ambassador to the United States to highlight U.S. concerns and urge China to use its influence over North Korea to try to restrain the cooperation, according to a State Department official who spoke. under condition of anonymity.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the parties had an intense conversation this week and that China knows the United States expects it to use the influence it has to work to curb these activities.

“But I think this is a signal of demand that comes not just from us, but from countries around the world,” he said at a news conference in Washington with Secretary at Defense Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts.

The United States says 8,000 North Korean troops are in Russia near the Ukrainian border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight Ukrainian troops in the coming days.

Beijing has forged a no-holds-barred partnership with Moscow and, although it is a major ally of Pyongyang, experts say Beijing may not approve of a closer military partnership between Russia and North Korea because it sees it as destabilizing in the region.

Asked about a meeting between U.S. and Chinese diplomats, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a news briefing Wednesday in Beijing that he had no information to provide.

He added that China's positions on Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula are consistent. China has called for a ceasefire and peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. And he has long advocated for a peaceful and stable Korean Peninsula.

The Russia-North Korea partnership runs counter to Beijing's goal of a peaceful Korean Peninsula, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University of China.

Beijing is aware of the complexity and danger of the situation, Shi said, noting that the fact that China has yet to say anything about the military alliance agreement between North Korea and Russia indicates that China strongly disagrees with this agreement.

Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, called Beijing's radio silence on North Korea's move astounding. He said Beijing needed to strike a balance between supporting Moscow and not angering the West, and that Chinese President Xi Jinping might, for his own good, ignore all that.

Xi has built a personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he cannot see Putin fail, Wilder said this week during a roundtable hosted by the Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies .

At the same time, Xi cannot anger Europeans and Americans while his country's economy is struggling, Wilder said.

So he won't say anything publicly about it, Wilder said.

Austin said Thursday that China should at this point ask Russia tough questions and ask whether it intends to widen this conflict through this type of behavior.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Dan Kritenbrink and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs James O'Brien met Tuesday with the envoy Chinese Xie Feng in Washington, according to the State Department official, who did not want to detail the Chinese response.

Lu Chao, director of the Institute of American and East Asian Studies at Liaoning University in northeast China's Liaoning province, said the United States should not expect China to manage North Korea.

As for the Korean Peninsula issue, China is friendly to both North and South Korea. It is not true that China is responsible for handling North Korea and the United States is responsible for handling South Korea, Lu said. I hope the US government can understand the position of China.

Lu also said troop deployment was a matter between Russia and North Korea, while China's attitude remained unchanged that the conflict should not escalate but be resolved through a political solution.