WW3 Buildup: Russia says North Korea’s nukes are a ‘direct threat’
A top Russian official said Sunday at a security conference in
Singapore that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are a “direct threat to
Russia.”Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told defense ministers and experts from 39 countries that Pyongyang’s missile defense system “has a real function.”
“That is why it is alarming. And it is direct threat to Russia. We are convinced that it will increase the tensions of the region. That is our principle position," he said.
Once considered a strong ally, Russia has backed fresh sanctions against North Korea.
In early June, Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov reaffirmed this commitment, “the choice here has to be made in favor of using diplomatic tools to the maximum extent possible.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking at the same conference, said that North Korea presented a "clear and present danger."
The United States pushed tough new sanctions against Pyongyang Friday at the U.N. Security Council but they were ultimately blocked by China.
The Security Council voted unanimously to add 15 individuals and four entities linked to North Korea’s nuclear missile programs to a U.N. sanctions blacklist.
Japan Holds Evacuation Drill Amid Tension From North Korea
A town in western Japan conducted an evacuation
drill Sunday amid rising fear that a North Korean ballistic missile
could hit Japanese soil. More than 280 residents and schoolchildren
from Abu, a small town with a population of just over 3,400 on Japan’s
northwestern coast, rushed to designated school buildings to seek
shelter after sirens from loudspeakers
warned them of a possible missile flight and debris falling on them.
The drill follows three consecutive weeks of North Korean missile
tests. Last week, a missile splashed into the sea inside Japan’s
200-mile exclusive economic zone off the country’s western coast. READ MOREUS missile interceptor system won’t stop N. Korean ‘shower of nuclear strike’
just a serious military provocation that brings to light the US imperialists’ wild ambition for igniting a nuclear war.” He called the interceptor test a “risky act” that indicates US “preparations for unleashing a nuclear war against” North Korea. Such “foolhardy moves” of the US military only prove that North Korea’s “bolstering the nuclear force for self-defense is entirely just,” according to the spokesman. READ MORE