NATO and the European Union have stepped up efforts to persuade China to influence North Korea to stop sending troops and other support to Russia for its war against Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.

According to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence estimates, up to 12.000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia's Kursk border region to help Russia fight Ukrainian forces. NATO claims that Russia is sending missile technology to North Korea in return.

During today's visit to Latvia, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that the exchange of missile technology poses "a direct threat, not only to Europe, but also to Japan, South Korea and the United States". Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand now regularly attend NATO meetings.

Rutte said yesterday, after a conversation with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, that the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific areas "really have to be seen" as one area, not two, and that the security of Western countries is now "more and more of a global issue". .

Last week, Rutte told Politico that China had a "special responsibility" to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure a freeze on trade between North Korea and Russia, adding that Beijing "cannot pretend to promote peace while closes its eyes to increased aggression."

While North Korea and Russia have grown significantly closer, many observers say China is reluctant to form an anti-Western tripartite alliance with them, preferring a stable security environment to deal with economic challenges and maintain relations with Europe and its Asian neighbors.

In a blog post today, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell detailed a recent trip to Japan and South Korea, where he discussed sending North Korean troops to Russia and Pyongyang's other forms of aid to Moscow.

"This marks an escalation of the highest possible seriousness, which was certainly at the heart of our discussions with the Japanese and South Korean leaders," wrote Borrell, who also spoke with Blinken yesterday.

During the trip, Borrell hailed the conclusion of new security and defense partnerships with Japan and South Korea, "the first outside of Europe."

"The EU was certainly not created as a military alliance, but in the current geopolitical context it can and must become both a guarantor of global security and a partner," Borrell wrote.

As Russia uses its military advantage in Ukraine, the United States wants its allies to put political pressure on China to rein in North Korea. Since Pyongyang and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1949, their relationship has been described as "very close".

Blinken said this week that the outgoing administration of Joseph Biden has been determined in recent months to help Ukraine continue to fight a Russian invasion next year.