Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the U.S. is trying to provoke North Korea into starting a war so that they could strike back.
“We are alarmed that in the last two months when North Korea conducted no tests or rocket launches, it seemed that Washington was not happy about that, and tried to do things that would irritate and provoke Pyongyang. It’s as if they are hoping that they (the North Koreans) will lash out again, and then it would be possible to engage in military options,” Lavrov said after the meeting with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono.
Lavrov used the opportunity to ask why the U.S. imposed new sanctions on North Korea and held military exercises in the region while Pyongyang had not taken action against them. He also said that Japan has not done much to discourage tension from the U.S. aimed at North Korea, Newsweek reported.
“We are expressing deep concern, with facts to back it up, that Japan along with South Korea is becoming a territory for the deployment of elements of the U.S. global missile defense system which is being rolled out in that region under the pretext of the North Korea threat. We have no problems directly with Japan, we do not see risks there. We see risks because of the proliferation of a global U.S. missile defense system on the territory of countries that neighbor Russia, including Japan,” Lavrov said.
He emphasized that the U.S. leadership had said many times that everything was possible, including military options, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said that he supports the American position 100 percent. Kono said that Tokyo must protect itself after North Korea conducted missile test in September.
“This is unprecedented, the most important and most pressing threat not just to Japan and Russia but to the international community as a whole. It’s absolutely unacceptable. We believe it’s necessary to use all possible means and to increase the pressure on North Korea as much as possible to stop its nuclear program and the rocket launches,” Kono said.
In the meantime, a senior North Korean government official reportedly said that his country is aiming its nuclear weapons at the U.S., not other countries.
“Today’s reality shows that our obtaining of nuclear (weapons) shatters the U.S. ambition to secure its supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region and safeguards peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and its region. Our nuclear deterrence is a sword of justice aimed at fighting (U.S.) nuke and Asia and any country in the world need not worry about our threats as long as they do not join invasion and provocations toward us,” Ri Jong-hyok, deputy of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly and director of the National Reunification Institute, said.
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