23 September 2017

News Report: Kremlin Calls for Restraint Amid US, North Korea Rage

Russia is sticking to a political and a diplomatic resolution to the North Korean issue, calling on all the parties involved to avoid further provocations and escalation amid North Korea mulling a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia insists there is no alternative to diplomacy as means of resolution to the situation on the Korean peninsula, another path may have catastrophic consequences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

The statement was made after North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho had suggested that the nation's leader might be mulling a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific after their row with the United States escalated this week. 

The North's top diplomat added he had no idea what Kim Jong Un's exact plans were, after he warned the United States of a "high-level" countermeasure, in response to the US president's recent threats. 

"Moscow is still convinced that there is no alternative to political and a diplomatic resolution to the North Korean issue, there can be no other solution, any other resolution to this issue may potentially have undesirable and even catastrophic consequences," Peskov told reporters.

According to the Kremlin official, Moscow is concerned over the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula.

"Moscow still calls on all the parties involved to exercise restraint to avoid further provocations and escalation," Peskov added.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Kim a "rocket man" on a "suicide mission," in his first major speech at UN, and said Pyongyang faced a total destruction if it attacked the United States or its allies.

The North Korean leader in response to Donald Trump's speech accused the US President of exhibiting "mentally deranged behavior" and threatened him with the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history".

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