MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is taking security measures as a precaution against the possibility tension over North Korea could escalate into nuclear war, news agencies quoted officials as saying on Wednesday.
Interfax quoted an unnamed security source as saying a stand-off triggered by Pyongyang's nuclear test on Monday could affect the security of Russia's far eastern regions, which border North Korea.
"The need has emerged for an appropriate package of precautionary measures," the source said.
"We are not talking about stepping up military efforts but rather about measures in case a military conflict, perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons, flares up on the Korean Peninsula," he added. The official did not elaborate further.
North Korea has responded to international condemnation of its nuclear test and a threat of new U.N. sanctions by saying it is no longer bound by an armistice signed with South Korea at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying the "war of nerves" over North Korea should not be allowed to grow into a military conflict, a reference to Pyongyang's decision to drop out of the armistice deal.
"We assume that a dangerous brinkmanship, a war of nerves, is under way, but it will not grow into a hot war," the official told Tass. "Restraint is needed."
The Foreign Ministry often uses statements sourced to unnamed officials, released through official news agencies, to lay down its position on sensitive issues.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned the North Korean tests but his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned the international community against hasty decisions.
Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council which is preparing to discuss the latest stand-off over the peninsula.
In the past, Moscow has been reluctant to support Western calls for sanctions. But Russian officials in the United Nations have said that this time the authority of the international body is at stake.
Medvedev told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who called him on Wednesday, that Russia was prepared to work with Seoul on a new U.N. Security Council resolution and to revive international talks on the North Korean nuclear issue.
"The heads of state noted that the nuclear test conducted by North Korea on Monday is a direct violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution and impedes international law," a Kremlin press release said.
All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Russia fears Korea conflict could go nuclear
Obama thinks the North Korean nuclear threat is bluster.
Meanwhile, Russia is actually concerned this crisis could turn into a nuclear war. Strange that the Russian Administration seems to be behaving more rationally then the President of the United States.
Ya ever get the feeling we've stepped into a bad Twilight Zone Episode?
ReplyDeleteBHO gives me the creeps -
ReplyDeleteC-CS
Hmmm. And who knows whether these guys are telling the truth, or whether they are just "disinforming" to give a false sense of security to the threatened nations?
ReplyDeleteIf Russia really wants to influence the Norks, do you think they need to do it with a public statement?
I don't trust any of 'em any more.
Ro
They just fired another (a third) one today, after 2 from yesterday and the nuclear test.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Why do they keep doing this?
ReplyDeleteRo
What the hell! While BHO and company pretend this is all bluster, NK is proceeding apace.
ReplyDeleteWe live in the Age of Surrealism.
The only thing the security council will do is trade in their rolled up newspaper, for an even bigger rolled up newspaper.
ReplyDeleteThere is only one way that the situation with Iran and N "Whorea" will end. The total destruction of Israel by Iran.
North Korea may well attack the South in the meantime, to trump up their small minded might and blackmail the world, so they can continue showing their wares to the buying world.
Russia? Only cares about Russia. They could give a shit what anyone is doing, so long as it doesn't threaten their homeland. They are no better then N "Whorea".
Christine,
ReplyDeleteYou and I are in agreement on this. I do not believe North Korea intends to use those nukes. They might, as you say, attack South Korea, knowing that they can get away with it, because they are now perceived as a nuclear power. But, they will not nuke South Korea, or Japan, because they know the response to that would be the utter annihilation of North Korea by the United States.