Russia on Friday voiced "deep concern" and urged restraint after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered that his country’s nuclear arsenal be readied for pre-emptive use at any time.
Russia on Friday voiced "deep concern" and urged restraint after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered that his country's nuclear arsenal be readied for pre-emptive use at any time.
"We are following the development of the situation very closely and hope that all the countries in the region and third countries will maintain restraint and equanimity in this difficult situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Bellicose rhetoric is almost routine for North Korea at times of elevated tensions but Peskov told reporters in Moscow that Kim's latest declaration "caused deep concern" for Russia.
Kim ordered the North's nuclear warheads deployed "on standby" in a widely-expected uptick in military sabre-rattling from Pyongyang following the UN Security Council's adoption of tough new sanctions.
While the North is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear warheads, experts are divided about its ability to mount them on a working missile delivery system.
The EU on Friday imposed additional punitive measures against North Korea over its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests carried out in defiance of United Nations resolutions.
Europe's move came two days after the UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted its toughest sanctions yet against Pyongyang, imposing unprecedented inspections of all cargo to and from the notoriously reclusive country which has locked itself away from the rest of the world for the past 60 years.
Hours after the United Nations adopted the tougher sanctions, North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea in a new show of defiance.
Russia -- which enjoys friendly ties with the reclusive Stalinist regime -- backed the tough UN measures against North Korea on Wednesday, after arduous negotiations between the United States and Pyongyang's main backer China.
Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told members of the security council that the North Korea situation was "extremely tense".
