25 February 2017

News Report: US Should Focus on North Korea Nuclear Problem, Not Winning Arms Race - Official

US administration should concentrate on finding solutions for the nuclear problem in North Korea rather than attempting to win the nuclear arms race against Russia, senior member of the Russian parliament's upper house Alexei Pushkov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Trump told Reuters news agency that the United States was going to be "at the top of the pack" in terms of nuclear capacities and would never "fall behind on nuclear power."

"Instead of striving for the phantom nuclear superiority over Russia, the US administration should be looking for solutions of difficult North Korea nuclear problem," Pushkov wrote on his Twitter.

The lawmaker added that Trump, who won the presidential elections as the candidate from the Republican Party, should be concerned about the rival Democratic Party planning his impeachment rather than worry about the New START treaty.

On Thursday, Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives Keith Ellison told CNN broadcaster that Trump had "done a number of things which legitimately raise the question of impeachment."

North Korea's nuclear program has been a source for concern for its closest neighbors, Japan and South Korea, and for the global community. On February 12, Pyongyang launched a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan and declared the test successful. This and a number of previous launches were considered to be in violation of the UNSC resolution by the United Nations.

The New START treaty was signed by the United States and Russia in 2010 in Prague. The two sides agreed to reduce the number of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 and the number of deployed missiles and bombers to 700.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.