FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday [9-1-17] that the standoff between North Korea and the United States was close to spilling into a large-scale conflict and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile program.
Putin, due to attend a summit of the BRICS nations in China next week, said the only way to de-escalate tensions was via talks, and Sergei Lavrov, his foreign minister, said Washington not Pyongyang should take the initiative on that…
The Russian leader, whose nuclear-capable bombers recently overflew the Korean Peninsula in a show of force, said the situation had deteriorated so badly that it was now ‘balanced on the verge of a large-scale conflict.’
Pyongyang has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
On Monday, North Korea, which sees joint war games between the United States and South Korea as preparations for invasion, raised the stakes by firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan.”
-Andrew Osborn and Dmitry Solovyov, “Putin warns North Korea situation on verge of ‘large-scale conflict’,” Reuters, Sept. 1, 2017 01:07am