MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged all parties to exercise restraint after Pyongyang's sharp reaction to the joint military drills conducted by South Korea and the United States.
"The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] as a state that is explicitly called a target of this military activity [the U.S.-South Korean drills] is understandably concerned about its security. Russia made repeated public declarations of its negative attitude towards such manifestations of the military political pressure on Pyongyang," the ministry said in a commentary on Monday.
"Nevertheless, North Korea's reaction to what is happening cannot be called rightful either. In particular, we consider its public declarations threatening to carry out some 'preventive nuclear strikes' against its opponents to be categorically inadmissible," the ministry said.
"Pyongyang must realize that the DPRK thereby ultimately puts itself in confrontation to international community, giving international legal grounds for the use of military force against it in line with a State's right to self-defense enshrined in the UN Charter," the ministry said.
"We urge all parties to demonstrate wisdom and restraint, not to allow the situation slide towards the line beyond which the conflict on the peninsula could get out of control," the ministry said.
"The developments on and around the Korean peninsula are increasingly alarming," the ministry said.
"The U.S.-South Korean military drills started on March 7, although being formally planned, in reality are unprecedented in their scale, as well as the number and type of weapons involved and the type of operations being practiced," the ministry said.