MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. The current situation around the Korean peninsula is balancing on the brink of a regional war while the US attempts to undermine the Kim Jong-un regime are pushing Pyongyang towards adventurist steps, which Washington uses to deploy global missile shield elements in the region, First Deputy Head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Department Vice-Admiral Igor Kostyukov said on Thursday.

"The situation around the Korean peninsula has long been balancing on the brink of a regional war. The US White House’s purposeful attempts to undermine the viability of the Kim Jong-un regime and the demonstration of its readiness for the removal of the North Korean leadership through the use of force are pushing Pyongyang towards adventurist steps, which Washington is using to justify the need to build up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and deploy global missile shield elements," Kostyukov said at the 7th Moscow conference on international security.

The topicality of the North Korean factor has allowed the US White House to stimulate its allies to build up military expenditures and acquire new US-made weapons, he said.

"As a result of this dangerous US policy, the North Korean authorities that have actually been driven to the corner have achieved considerable progress in improving their missile and nuclear potential," Kostyukov noted.

Characteristically, the North Korean leadership’s consent to the negotiations is viewed in the US White House not as a voluntary step but as a result of sanctions that have had a negative impact on the North Korean economy, he pointed out.

"Russia does not justify North Korea’s nuclear aspirations and insists on Pyongyang’s strict fulfillment of the UN Security Council’s resolution. However, what is obvious for us is that there is no alternative to settling the nuclear problem solely by political and diplomatic means. We believe that the potential of sanctions measures and stronger pressure has been used up by now," the official of Russia’s General Staff said.

Promising statements by the US president on his intention to conclude an important deal for the entire world during his meeting with the North Korean leader can be assessed only after such a meeting is held, he noted.

"Up until now, the United States, which verbally spoke for its readiness for negotiations, in actual fact disrupted them by all possible methods," the vice-admiral said.

Numerous territorial disputes persist and periodically flare up in the Asian region and under certain circumstances they may escalate military tension, Kostyukov said.