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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

Russian, Chinese diplomats concerned over developments in Korean peninsula

The two countries' diplomats stress the inadmissibility to ramp up the arms race, to spiral tensions and to slide towards military and political confrontation

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Igor Morgulov and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou expressed their concern with negative trends in the current developments in the Korean peninsula, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said after the consultations held in Moscow.

TENSIONS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA

"The sides pondered over the issues related to the situation in the Korean peninsula," the ministry said. They "expressed their joint concern for negative tendencies in the developments, caused, on the one hand, by another nuclear test carried out by North Korea on September 9, and on the other hand, by some countries’ inclination to use Pyongyang’s nuclear program as a pretext for tipping the strategic balance in the region."

The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that Morgulov and Kong Xuanyou shared an opinion about inadmissibility to ramp up the arms race, to spiral tensions and to slide towards military and political confrontation. The diplomats confirmed the significance of coordinated joint efforts aimed to stabilize the situation in the Korean peninsula and unlock the negotiation process seeking to resolve its problems, including the task of its denuclearization.

On September 9, North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test. According to South Korea’s ministry of national defense, it was the most powerful missile ever tested by Pyongyang, with a yield of about ten kilotonnes. The four previous nuclear tests were conducted by North Korea in 2006, in 2009, in 2013 and in January 2016.

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