MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Russia is warning about the risk of an armed confrontation on the Korean Peninsula amid the unprecedented military activity by United States and its allies in this subregion, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told TASS.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned the United States and South Korea that Pyongyang would destroy their capitals if they opt for a military confrontation with his country.
In this context, the senior Russian diplomat said that he doesn’t rule out the risk of a direct armed confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.
"The Russian side has repeatedly rung the alarm bell about the dramatic escalation of tension and growing risks of a direct military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean leader’s warning should be considered through the prism of the unprecedented military activity by the United States and its allies in the subregion," he stressed.
He recalled that Washington, along with Seoul and Tokyo, is conducting non-stop joint exercises to drill scenarios of preemptive strikes on North Korea’s territory. "The United States’ non-stop aggressive provocative actions are forcing Pyongyang to take measures to boost its defense capacity and defense. The West’s attempts to put the blame for growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeastern Asia in general on North Korea are nothing but an old habit of passing the buck," Rudenko said.
He stressed that Moscow believes that "it is high time to put an end to the irresponsible and explosive policy of the United States," which is using the "Indo-Pacific strategies" to undermine "the independent development of countries of the region and the sovereign right of their peoples to preserve and strengthen their identity and to choose the way of development by themselves."
"In a bid to retain control over the region by means of destabilizing the situation there, the United States is involving its allies in various schemes of ‘extended nuclear deterrence,’ which provide for joint planning of the use of nuclear weapons," the Russian diplomat said. "It is important to understand in time that such an approach to the problems of strategic security on the Korean Peninsula is short-sighted."
"If it comes to the implementation of American scenarios of a nuclear conflict, those countries, which are actively pandering at their senior ally, will inevitable fall the first victim of iits geopolitical games," he added.