Russia warns North Korea over threats of nuclear strike
One of Pyongyang’s few remaining allies says country is in danger of creating legal grounds for international military intervention. NK News reports
Russia has warned North Korea that threats to deliver “preventive nuclear strikes” could create a legal basis for the use of military force against the country, suggesting that even Pyongyang’s few remaining friends are growing concerned about its increasingly confrontational stance.
The Russian foreign ministry statement, which follows a North Korean threat to “annihilate” the US and South Korea, also criticises Washington and Seoul for launching the largest joint military drills yet to be held on the peninsula.
“We consider it to be absolutely impermissible to make public statements containing threats to deliver some ‘preventive nuclear strikes’ against opponents,” the Russian foreign ministry said in response to North Korea’s threats.
“Pyongyang should be aware of the fact that in this way the DPRK will become fully opposed to the international community and will create international legal grounds for using military force against itself in accordance with the right of a state to self-defense enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” continued the statement, translated by Itar Tass news agency.
Washington and Seoul launched their annual joint military exercises on the peninsula on Monday, stepping up the manoeuvres in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January and rocket launch in February.
But while the statement said Moscow was opposed to the tone of North Korea’s response, it also said the scale of the American-South Korean joint exercise put “unprecedented … military and political pressure on Pyongyang”.....MORE
