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Escalation on Korean peninsula may lead to war, says Russian defense minister

The Russian defense minister stresses there is no military solution to problems on the Korean peninsula

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. There is no military solution to problems on the Korean peninsula while the instigation of this situation may lead to an armed conflict, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday.

"We believe that there is no military solution to the Korean problem. Pressure and threats are not an effective means of settling the crisis. Moreover, the constant instigation of the situation and the demonstration of the military force may lead to incidents and even an armed conflict whose consequences may affect the entire region," Shoigu said at the 7th Moscow conference on international security.

As the Russian defense minister noted, the conference’s program traditionally includes the issues of security in the Asian region, which is today "the driving force of world economic development."

In recent years, the defense ministries of Russia and Asian countries have significantly intensified their cooperation, Shoigu said.

‘In this regard, our strategic relations with China, India, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar look indicative. We are getting a new impulse in our interaction with Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines both on a bilateral basis and within multilateral ASEAN formats," the Russian defense minister noted.

Partnership continues also because challenges to security still persist in Asia and they require joint actions. In the first place, this is the crisis around the Korean peninsula, in which an increasing number of countries is being drawn," Shoigu said.