MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia believes North
Korea's recent warnings of military strikes and all-out war
should not be taken literally, a Foreign Ministry spokesman
said on Thursday.
On Saturday, a day after new UN sanctions were passed over
the North's recent nuclear test, the reclusive communist state
released a statement threatening "resolute military action" if
the U.S. tried to isolate it, vowing to "weaponize" plutonium,
and warning it would consider attempts to blockade it an "act
of war."
"I wouldn't take the June 13 statement of the North Korean
Foreign Ministry too literally," Andrei Nesterenko said, while
admitting that "the circumstances are very serious."
"Whichever way you look at it, the fact that a member of
the United Nations is demonstratively declaring its refusal to
fulfill UN Security Council resolutions cannot fail to provoke
deep concern," he said.
Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources have said
the North appears to be preparing to test-launch two
intercontinental ballistic missiles, in defiance of UN
resolutions.
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