Australia’s national intelligence chief has issued a stark warning, calling the emerging axis of China, Iran, and North Korea “a profoundly troubling strategic development” that Western countries are struggling to address, Al Jazeera reports.
Director-General of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, Andrew Shearer, stated on Wednesday that the strategic impact of this alliance, with China and Russia at its core, had been underestimated. Shearer’s warning comes as Russian senators are poised to vote on Wednesday to ratify a mutual defense pact between Moscow and Pyongyang, further solidifying their alliance.
The pact, ratified by Russia’s lower house of parliament on October 24, formalizes months of deepening security cooperation between Russia and North Korea, sparking alarm among Western allies. It has been described as the strongest link between Russia and North Korea since the end of the Cold War and coincides with reports from the US and South Korea that an estimated 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to fight with Russian forces in the war on Ukraine.
While North Korea has denied the deployment, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not refuted the claims. Several Russian officials have dodged requests for comment on the matter.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday, declared that the first battles between Ukrainian and North Korean troops “mark a new chapter of global instability,” following Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov’s confirmation of a “small engagement” between soldiers from both countries.
The Group of Seven (G7) democracies – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US – along with three allies, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, have condemned the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia as a “dangerous expansion of the conflict.”
Australia, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, remains concerned by the growing influence of this emerging axis.
