China remains officially agnostic about North Korea’s deployment of troops to help Russia’s war in Ukraine – a dispatch that analysts say holds potential trouble for Pyongyang’s main backer Beijing even as both communist nations share the goal of supporting Vladimir Putin. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian repeated the line Beijing has used in the face of increasingly definitive and detailed accounts of the dispatch to, and movements within, Russia of Korean People’s Army forces from the North.
“China does not have information on that and our position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. We always believe that all parties need to promote the deescalation of the situation and strive for a political settlement,” Lin said at Friday’s daily news briefing in Beijing. North Korea has sent nearly 12,000 troops to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals, the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate said, adding that the first sightings of North Korean soldiers were recorded on Tuesday. Reports say troops are disguised as ethnic minorities from Siberia.South Korea last week released detailed satellite images it said showed the first deployment of North Korean troops to Russia. The United States also said on Wednesday it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine.
