Rudd urges Beijing to press North Korea to ‘cease and desist’ over Ukraine

London: Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, has urged Beijing to lean on North Korea to “cease and desist” with its growing military support for Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

The White House said for the first time on Wednesday that it believed North Korea moved at least 3000 soldiers into eastern Russia from early to mid-October, echoing information from Kyiv intelligence officials that thousands of soldiers from the hermit nation would be sent to fight Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in the next week.

A TV screen shows an image of soldiers believed to be from North Korea stand in line to receive supplies from Russia.Credit: AP

The US and its NATO allies have warned that using North Korean troops in combat would represent a major escalation in the conflict between Moscow and the West. While Pyongyang has provided Russia with missiles and millions of artillery shells, deployment of military units marks the first foray of a foreign country’s army in the conflict.

Rudd, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the prospect that North Korean forces could enter the war highlighted both Moscow’s military shortfalls and its growing reliance on support from US adversaries.

He said it also illustrated how the conflict could have implications for areas outside Europe such as North-East Asia.

“I think the view of many of us who have monitored the China-DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] relationship over a long period of time would be seeking our Chinese friends’ support in maximising leverage in Pyongyang to get them to cease and desist,” Rudd, who stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity, said.

“Because the escalation potential of what is unfolding is not in China’s interests. It’s not in anybody’s interests, apart from [Vladimir] Putin’s interests.”

The former prime minister said without North Korea’s military intervention with hardware and now personnel, Putin’s army would be “in infinitely more challenging strategic circumstances in Ukraine than it currently is”.

“This is not at the margins of the military balance in the battle space in Ukraine. It is significant,” Rudd said. “I would think Beijing would be looking with some concern at the speed, breadth and depth of the unfolding geopolitical and direct military relationship between Russia and the DPRK.

“It does not lie exclusively within China’s purchase, but because of China’s long-standing supply of resources, including oil to the north, China is not without leverage.”

Ukrainian officials have said that overall, more than 12,000 North Koreans had arrived in the far-east of Russia ahead of their deployment, although other countries have differed on the size of Pyongyang’s force.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport outside Pyongyang in June.Credit: AP

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was “seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops that have gone to Russia”.

The Biden administration has yet to say how it plans to respond to their potential employment in combat against Ukrainian forces.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was still unclear whether the soldiers would enter into combat alongside the Russian military.

Should North Korean soldiers enter into combat, it would be an “unprecedented level of military co-operation” between Russia and North Korea with significant security implications in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Kirby said.

Shirley Martey Hargis, at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said Beijing was “never distant from relations between Russia and North Korea”.

She said while Beijing and Moscow presented a “no limits” partnership, in practice “this partnership is more about strategic convenience than genuine camaraderie, with China holding significant leverage over Russia, often treating it as a little brother”.

“Russia’s growing ties with North Korea are a hedge against China’s dominance,” she said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said news about North Korea’s contribution to Russia’s war in Ukraine was “deeply troubling”.

Speaking from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa on Thursday, Wong said Australia stood with the international community against North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war.

“This is deeply concerning development to see not only Russia continue its illegal and immoral war, but to see a state such as North Korea be invited by President Putin, encouraged by President Putin to join or to support this illegal war,” Wong said.

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