Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday took an indirect swipe at the United States, telling the United Nations that “military hysteria” over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests would lead to “disaster.”
“We resolutely condemn the nuclear and missile adventures of Pyongyang,” Lavrov said, “but military hysteria is not just an impasse, it’s disaster.”
The foreign minister spoke to the UN General Assembly two days after US president Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if it launches attacks on his country or its allies.
The threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests has dominated this year’s gathering of world leaders, but divisions remain over how to confront Pyongyang.
Lavrov stressed there was “no alternative to political and diplomatic ways of settling the nuclear situation” on the Korean peninsula and called on countries to support a joint Russian-Chinese proposal for talks.
Moscow and Beijing have proposed kick-starting negotiations with North Korea by freezing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a suspension of South Korean-US annual military drills.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has dismissed the proposal as “insulting.”
North Korea in recent weeks detonated its sixth nuclear bomb and has test-fired intercontinental missiles — saying it needs to defend itself against hostility from the United States and its allies.
