Putin warns of “large-scale conflict” over North Korea situation

President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that the standoff between North Korea and the US was close to spilling into a large-scale conflict.

Putin, due to attend a summit of the BRICS nations in China next week, said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile programme.

He said the only way to de-escalate tensions was via talks.

“It is essential to resolve the region’s problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions (for such talks),” Putin, whose country shares a border with North Korea, wrote on the Kremlin’s web site.

“Provocations, pressure, and bellicose and offensive rhetoric is the road to nowhere.”

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.”

“In Russia’s opinion the calculation that it is possible to halt North Korea’s nuclear missile programmes exclusively by putting pressure on Pyongyang is erroneous and futile,” Putin wrote.

A road map formulated by Moscow and Beijing, which would involve North Korea halting its missile programme in exchange for the US and South Korea stopping large-scale war games, was a way to reduce tensions, wrote Putin.

On Monday Pyongyang launched a missile over Japan, in a major escalation, while it had earlier threatened to fire rockets towards the US Pacific territory of Guam.

In July it carried out its first two successful tests of an intercontinental-range missile, apparently bringing much of the US mainland into range.

Lavrov says US should take initiative for talks

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Washington not Pyongyang should take the initiative to hold talks.

Addressing students in Moscow, he said he felt events were building towards a war which he said would cause large numbers of casualties in Japan and South Korea if it happened.

“If we want to avoid a war the first step must be taken by the side that is the more intelligent and stronger,” said Lavrov, making clear he was referring to the US.

He said Russia was working behind the scenes and that Moscow knew that Washington had a back channel to Pyongyang which he said he hoped would allow the two sides to de-escalate.

US ban on N Korea travel takes effect

Washington’s ban on US citizens travelling to North Korea came into force on Friday, with the two countries at loggerheads over Pyongyang’s weapons ambitions.

The measure was imposed following the death of student Otto Warmbier in June, a few days after the 22-year-old was sent home in a mysterious coma following more than a year in prison in the North.

He had been convicted of offences against the state for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour, with President Donald Trump blaming Pyongyang’s “brutal regime” for his plight.

On its website the State Department said it took the decision due to “the serious and mounting risk of arrest and long-term detention of US citizens”.

Three Americans accused of various crimes against the state are behind bars in the North, which is engaged in a tense standoff with the Trump administration over its banned missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Exemptions to the travel ban are available for journalists, Red Cross representatives, those travelling for humanitarian purposes, or journeys the State Department deems to be in the national interest of the US.

But NGOs working in the North privately express concerns about how the process will function and the potential impact on their work.

A few remaining US citizens in the country left on Thursday, reports said.