MOSCOW. July 4 (Interfax) - Russia should offer security guarantees to North Korea in exchange for phasing out the North Korean missile program, Russian military expert Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov said.
"It's necessary to intensify political-diplomatic work and propose various optional ways out of this situation. To make comprehensive proposals - on the one hand, guarantees of military security for North Korea, and simultaneously, [those aimed at] lowering the DPRK's missile testing activity," Ivashov, who headed the Russian Defense Ministry's main international military cooperation directorate in 1996-2001, said in an interview with Interfax on Tuesday.
"Korea doesn't want to turn into Syria, Libya, or Iraq. And therefore, it is taking measures to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Ivashov said.
Russian diplomats should focus on making sure that "the North Korean nuclear missile test program doesn't provoke a strike on the U.S. part," he said.
"Otherwise, there will be a major regional war there, which will certainly affect both economic aspects and Russia's security issues," he said.