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Official Beijing is aware of North Korea’s arms supplies to Russia; moreover, this happened with its permission. Thus, the head of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, is trying to increase his value at the expense of the DPRK. An international security expert from the Democratic Initiatives Foundation named after him spoke about this on the FREEDOM TV channel. Ilka Kucheriva Taras Zhovtenko.
“We need to understand why China needs this. China, having such proxy allies, does with their hands what it cannot do itself, and at the same time continues the geopolitical game against the Western world, primarily against the United States. China’s strategy is that it is in no way pursuing a deliberate escalation of confrontation. For official Beijing at this stage (at least because strategically we also cannot exclude the option of aggravating the confrontation between, for example, Beijing and Washington), after the meeting between Xi and Biden on November 15 in San Francisco (USA) and how they constructively agreed about the distribution of roles on a global scale, you need to understand that for China to have such proxy allies, to do with their hands what the countries of the Western world do not really like, this is rather a way to increase their own value and raise the stakes in this geopolitical dialogue that Beijing is conducting with Washington,” he says.
According to the expert, these moves by China are intended to demonstrate to the Western world that there are problematic issues, situations, conflicts in the region, and Beijing has direct influence on one of the participants in these conflicts and problematic situations. Therefore, in order for these conflict and problematic situations not to go beyond certain limits, the West must understand the degree of Beijing’s influence on everything that happens, including between North Korea and the Russian Federation.
“And when negotiating with China, take into account that China has its own interests, and China, influencing these conflicting circumstances, while helping the West, must also receive something in return. That is, China, at least at this stage, those of its allies that it uses for such a geopolitical game, very clearly outlines the boundaries of this game,” says Zhovtenko.
Therefore, the expert explains, there are no very large-scale supplies to Russia from North Korea, which could do this.
“We do not see the sending of other weapons, except now artillery systems and ammunition for them. Because at first they said that North Korea sent a million ammunition, then they also talked about 500 thousand additional ones. And now they are talking about several dozen ballistic systems – launchers and missiles. This is help for the needs of the Russian army, but not what the Russian leadership would count on. And China thus demonstrates that it has direct leverage over North Korea, and it will use such countries to advance its geopolitical interests,” he clarified.
How far the West will be able to influence these countries directly is a very individual story.
“For example, numerous sanctions were imposed against North Korea, and this helped China, among other things, strengthen its influence on the leadership of this country. Enough sanctions have also been imposed against Iran, but the limit has not yet been exhausted; Iran has not yet been driven into a sanctions regime as harshly as they did with North Korea. That is, in this situation, it is absolutely logical for the West to influence directly these proxy countries, but at the same time take into account the influence of China on these countries and make appropriate adjustments in how they communicate not only officially (official statements in relation to the authorities of these countries), but also take into account this balance, which official Beijing thus builds for itself,” summed up Taras Zhovtenko.
Let us recall that earlier Zhovtenko said that the DPRK survives in many ways thanks to assistance from the PRC. Everyone in the West understands perfectly well that Pyongyang’s actions are a continuation of China’s geostrategic game. And the fact that China cannot directly help the Russian Federation with weapons, since official Beijing positions itself as the second pole of power in the modern world and at the same time does everything to avoid being directly involved in the active war that Russia is waging against Ukraine.
