MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) - The military exercises of the United States and South Korea are openly provoking Pyongyang and increasing the probability of a military confrontation over the North Korea situation, the Chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, told Interfax on Monday.
"This is an extremely dangerous game which does not move [us] toward a settlement of the Korea problems by even an inch, but increases the probability of war. Russia and China are absolutely convinced that it [war] is not unavoidable, and the path of negotiation is still open as long as both North Korea and the United States de-escalate the tensions," Kosachyov said.
By starting its biggest-ever joint drill with South Korea, the U.S. is raising the stakes in its thus far "cold war" with North Korea, he said.
"In any case, even the Americans do not seem to believe in the efficiency of sanctions against Pyongyang. So they keep applying the tactics of open provocation and hope that the North Korean administration will lose its nerve," Kosachyov said.
The U.S. President's National Security Advisor, Herbert McMaster, said that the threat of war with North Korea is increasing day by day, while the U.S. Senate openly suggested that wives and children of employees of U.S. missions be evacuated from South Korea, Kosachyov said. "There is an impression that the United States is trying to make the world accustomed to the idea of an inevitable war," he said.
A reason for the conduct of the U.S. administration could be the wish to address domestic problems, including the Michael Flynn case, he said.
"As you know, the entire policy of the United States is domestic, so we should look for reasons for the ongoing events in Washington. The pressure on Trump and his team has been increasing there, and investigators recently managed to make the former National Security Advisor, Flynn, talk. This makes the idea that the U.S. president may be trying to solve domestic problems by means of a 'short war' not so utopian," Kosachyov said.
"There is a deficit of will and desire, but not of threats, sanctions, and missile tests," he said.