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US responsible for the situation on Korean Peninsula: Lavrov

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Dec 2022 17:27

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that the lack of US constructive talk with North Korea standing in the way of resolving issues in the Koreas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint news conference with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov following their talks in Moscow, Russia Monday, Dec. 5, 2022 (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blames the US for the lack of progress regarding the current state of affairs in the Korean Peninsula.

"Due to the unwillingness of the US to take practical constructive steps toward Pyongyang, there has been no progress in resolving the situation on the Korean Peninsula," said Lavrov on Monday to the attendees of the Moscow Conference on Nonproliferation.

In light of South Korea's provoking military drills with the participation of Japan and the US in the Korean Peninsula, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Monday that DPRK fired about 130 artillery shells at 2:59 pm (0559 GMT) from two distinct sites, one on the DPRK's east coast and one on the west coast.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) quickly responded in a statement by claiming the artillery firing was a "tit for tat warning" against the provoking artillery firings by the South.

On November 1, the DPRK issued a warning to the United States and South Korea against continuing their joint military drills, vowing a more powerful response to US provocations.

Following the warning, the DPRK announced that it has responded to South Korea and the United States' war games by hitting key enemy targets in an exercise.

the DPRK also reportedly launched on November 18 what is known as "monster rocket" and formally as Hwasong-17 ICBM which has a range to reach the US mainland.

According to a statement by the army of South Korea, the missile traveled nearly 1,000 km and hit an altitude of 6,100 km with a max speed of Mach 22.

However, according to Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, DPRK's intercontinental ballistic missile that was launched earlier in the day could have traveled more than 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) and reached the United States if it had been launched on a different trajectory.

Japan said that the missiles flew inside the country's exclusive economic zone and landed around 200 km west of the island of Hokkaido.

The Asian nation has increased its missile testing to a record level this year, as Washington and Seoul continue their provocations represented by a myriad of factors, including their joint military drills in the region.