MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Russia calls on North Korea to stop its missile nuclear tests and the US and South Korea to hold off from the drills scheduled for December, the Russian Foreign Ministry said due to a regular missile test conducted by North Korea on Wednesday.

"We call on North Korea to stop its missile nuclear tests and on the US and the Republic of Korea to hold off from the unprecedentally vast snap air force exercises announced to be held in early December that would only heat up the already troubled situation," the ministry stressed.

"A new ballistic missile launch carried out by North Korea on November 29 in breach of the corresponding UN Security Council resolutions arouses serious concerns," the ministry said. "Today, amid the ongoing military activity of the last few months conducted by the US and its allies in the area around the Korean Peninsula, it is crucial that the involved parties should not provoke one another and should show restraint instead and prevent any new moves that may lead to further escalation of tensions."

The Russian Foreign Ministry also pointed to the firmness of Moscow’s position regarding the North Korean situation and the absence of alternatives for a diplomatic settlement of this situation. "Russia’s position on the settlement of the situation regarding the Korean Peninsula is unchanged: an effective search for a long-term and mutually acceptable solution to the whole range of problems is possible only through hard and strenuous political and diplomatic work," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed. "In light of this, we call on all parties to urgently start the implementation of the Russian roadmap for the Korean settlement. We don’t see any reasonable alternatives to that."

In the morning of November 29, North Korea made its first missile launch since September 15. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a Hwasong-15 advanced missile reached an altitude of 4,475 km and covered a distance of 950km in 53 minutes of its flight. The information provided by Japan and South Korea is similar to this data. Japan’s Ministry of Defense reported that the missile fell down 250 km away from the northern prefecture of Aomori.