MOSCOW - The risk of a military conflict between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is very high, but Russia hopes common sense will prevail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
“The risks are very high, especially given the rhetoric. There are direct threats to use force,” Lavrov said, speaking at a youth forum in the Vladimir region, Central Russia.
He referred to the recent exchange of threats between Washington and Pyongyang.
According to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, the DPRK said it would prepare a plan by mid-August to strike the U.S. territory of Guam with intermediate missiles.
On Tuesday, Trump issued a controversial warning to the DPRK, saying that threats from the country would be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Russia was worried about these developments, Lavrov said.
“Unfortunately, rhetoric in Washington and in Pyongyang begins to go off scale. We still expect common sense to prevail,” he said. Lavrov recalled that Russia and China had made a number of proposals aimed at preventing a deep-seated conflict. (Xinhua)