Adm Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, has said that China and North Korea aid to Russia poses a security risk in the Indo-Pacific region.
He further claimed that Beijing and Pyongyang are aiding Russia in its war against Ukraine while Moscow in turn is assisting their military.
He warned US senators that the military support the three countries are currently sharing is a security risk.
Paparo told the US Senate armed services committee that China has provided 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the legacy chips to Russia to help Moscow “rebuild its war machine”; in the war with Ukraine.
According to him, in exchange, Russia is helping China in technologies, especially in the area of submarines, along with other assistance.
Paparo alongside Gen Xavier Brunson, who is the commander of US Forces Korea, were asked questions on China’s advances in the region, including threats to Taiwan by the Senate committee.
They also questioned both the US military presence in South Korea, and whether it should be shielded from personnel cuts.
The US has 28,500 military personnel in South Korea.
Paparo said North Korea is sending “thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of artillery shells”; and thousands of short-range missiles to Russia. The expectation, he said, is that Pyongyang will receive air-defense and surface-to-air missile support.
“It’s a transactional symbiosis where each state fulfills the other state’s weakness to mutual benefit of each state,”; Paparo said.
Brunson said North Korea has shown the ability to send munitions and troops to Russia while advancing development of its own military capabilities, including hypersonic weapons.
Pyongyang, he said, “boasts a Russian-equipped, augmented, modernized military force of over 1.3 million personnel”;.
North Korea’s efforts to develop advanced nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles “pose a direct threat to our homeland and our allies”;, Paparo added.
North Korea also has sent thousands of soldiers to fight with the Russians against Ukraine.
