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Situation on Korean Peninsula keeps degrading — Russian Foreign Ministry

"Unfortunately, now we are witnesses to a transition from the policy of ‘kindness in return for kindness’ to a ‘tit-for-tat’ policy," director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s First Asia Department Georgy Zinovyev said

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Russia notes with regret the further degradation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, as Pyongyang's missile launches were provoked by the military-political activity of Seoul and its allies, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s First Asia Department, Georgy Zinovyev, told the media on Monday.

"Regrettably, the situation [on the Korean Peninsula] continues to degrade," he said while answering a TASS question. "We believe that the main reason is the window of opportunity [for settling the situation] and the good will that was demonstrated, including by the DPRK, which for many years refrained from any such actions on the Korean Peninsula, have failed to be used.

"Unfortunately, now we are witnesses to a transition from the policy of ‘kindness in return for kindness’ to a ‘tit-for-tat’ policy," Zinovyev said.

"To a large extent, these launches (by the DPRK - TASS), of course, were provoked by the military-political activity that we had not observed for many years on the part of the Republic of Korea and its allies around the Korean Peninsula, and which, unfortunately, we have seen in recent months," he said. "I am referring to the active involvement of the US military potential in what is happening on the peninsula, and the large-scale exercises by the Republic of Korea and the United States, which have not taken place there for a very long time."

"Unfortunately, all these actions lead to the degradation of security in this turbulent region of the world," Zinovyev stressed.

At the same time, he recalled that Russia had put forward a number of initiatives together with Chinese partners.

"We hope that the logic contained in these ideas - a roadmap for resolving the situation on the Korean Peninsula, an action plan for its implementation, a logic of such peaceful coexistence and search for a way of defusing tensions and resolving the problems that keep piling up in the region, will eventually prevail," Zinovyev pointed out.

He added that some humanitarian concessions towards the DPRK, which could well have been made during this period, never materialized, although Moscow and Beijing were unequivocally in favor of the expediency of such gestures towards Pyongyang.