Washington (AP) – The best American Pacific Commander warned senators on Thursday that military support China And North Korea give Russia His war against Ukraine is a security risk in its region because Moscow provides critical military assistance for both in return.
Administrator Samuel Paparo, director of the American Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate armed services committee that China had provided 70% of machine tools and 90% of chips inherited in Russia to help Moscow “rebuild his war machine”.
In exchange, he said, China potentially gets aid in technologies so that its submarines move more quietly, as well as other assistance.
The senators pressed Paparo and General Xavier Brunson, commander of the American forces of Korea Threats to Taiwan. And they also questioned both the American military presence in South Korea, and if it should be protected from staff cuts.
The two said that the current American force there and through Indo-Pacific is essential for both diplomacy in the American region and national security, as the links between Russia and China are developing. The United States has 28,500 forces in South Korea.
Paparo said North Korea sends “thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of artillery shells” and thousands of short-range missiles in Russia. The wait, he said, is that Pyongyang will obtain air defense and the support of missiles on the surface.
“It is a transactional symbiosis where each state fills the weakness of the other state for mutual benefit from each state,” said Paparo.
Brunson said that North Korea has shown the ability to send ammunition and troops to Russia while advancing the development of its own military capacities, including hypersonia. Pyongrang, he said, “has a modernized military force and equipped with Russian-equipped of more than 1.3 million staff members”.
The efforts of North Korea to develop advanced nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles “constitute a direct threat to our homeland and our allies,” added Paparo.
North Korea has also sent thousands of soldiers to fight with the Russians against Ukraine. And the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday Let Russia actively recruit Chinese citizens to fight alongside its forces in the Ukrainian war. He said that more than 150 of these mercenaries are already active in the battle with the knowledge of Beijing.
China called on the “irresponsible” accusation.
