MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. The United States and South Korea are conducting joint nuclear planning not only to counter imaginary threats from North Korea, but also to strategically deter Russia and China, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

"The joint nuclear planning of the United States and South Korea is not limited only to countering, as they say, threats from North Korea, but is also aimed at strategic deterrence of Russia and China," she said.

"Working out scenarios of geopolitical armed conflict with the use of nuclear weapons provokes further escalation of tensions, undermines peace and stability, pushes this subregion to the brink of nuclear catastrophe," the diplomat pointed out.

The spokeswoman pointed out that the US intends to pursue an aggressive policy on the Korean Peninsula in order to "set another region on fire, undermine it, bring it into a state of absolute chaos, turn it into the Middle East-2, for example." "This would be fine for them, because it is another contract for the US military-industrial complex, another opportunity to show their citizens something of their own exclusivity, the ability to operate in this chaos, to raise the stakes in international affairs, and many other favorite methods could be applied to them in such a scenario," she explained.

Zakharova also emphasized the untenability of claims about the need to contain threats from North Korea, as the country’s actions are "a response to everything the West has been doing to the country for many decades."