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Russian lawmaker warns against military interference on Korean Peninsula

MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. The situation on the Korean Peninsula is highly alarming, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky told reporters commenting on North Korea’s new missile launch.

"The Korean Peninsula reminds of a powder keg, which cannot but cause concern," he said. According to Slutsky, "North Korea’s ongoing missile launches, as well as the West’s provocative actions against Pyongyang, can lead to irreparable consequences for the entire global community."

"I am still confident that military interference would end in an impasse," Slutsky went on to say. "We have been calling for finding a diplomatic solution to the North Korean issue, while rising tensions make the situation even more volatile," he stressed.

Slutsky added that "Russia has never supported North Korea’s self-proclaimed nuclear status, voting in favor of all the decisions that the United Nations Security Council has been making concerning this issue." "I don’t rule out the possibility that the latest missile launch will require a new meeting of the UN Security Council, although all the possible resolutions and sanctions have already been adopted," the senior Russian lawmaker concluded.

On Tuesday, North Korea launched another ballistic missile which flew over northwestern Japan, presumably plunging into the Pacific Ocean about 1,180 km east of the Hokkaido Island’s Cape Erimo. According to the South Korean military, the missile flew about 2,700 kilometers reaching an altitude of 550 kilometers.