China may have enough influence over both Russia and North Korea to shape their growing alliance.

The thousands of North Korean troops US intelligence say arrived in Russia for training this month have sparked concern they will be deployed to bolster Moscow’s battlefront in Ukraine.

North Korea's military has come under the spotlight after the United States joined South Korea and Ukraine this week to accuse Pyongyang of dispatching thousands of troops to Russia, potentially to ready them for combat in the Ukraine war.