With Kim’s escalating rhetoric about war with the South and the West, China needs its leverage to preserve peace in its backyard and cannot afford to be seen alienating its only treaty ally. This places China in a serious bind without any real options except to hope that the EU and U.

His statement follows the earlier numerous reports about North Korean soldiers stationed in Russia's Kursk Oblast, and even the first clashes with them in November. Read also: North Korea supplies Russia with over 100 artillery units and missiles – Defense Intelligence Zelenskyy highlighted that North Korean soldiers have already been killed in