Putin says war talk will not scare North Korea

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the administration of US President Donald Trump had shown the desire to defuse tensions over North Korea.

Putin said that whipping up military hysteria around the North Korean crisis was counterproductive, adding that Pyongyang would not end its nuclear and missile programmes because it views them as its only means for self-defence.

Putin's comments came after Trump on Wednesday said military action against North Korea was not "our first choice."

"It's impossible to scare them (North Korea)," Putin said at an economic forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok which was also attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean leader Moon Jae-In.

Joseph Kim has more on the story from Seoul.

Putin said that, as an incentive to freeze its weapons programmes, North Korea was being offered the prospect of an end to sanctions. But the economic benefits of that, in Pyongyang's eyes, are outweighed by the security risks.

"We are telling them that we will not impose sanctions, which means you will live better, you will have more good and tasty food on the table, you will dress better, but the next step, they think, is an invitation to the cemetery. And they will never agree with this."

Japan calls for more pressure

Putin's comments were in sharp contrast to Abe's who called for the world to put the "greatest possible pressure" on North Korea to abandon its nuclear missile programme.

"The international community must unite in applying the greatest possible pressure on North Korea," he said just four days after Pyongyang staged its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date, which it described as a "perfect success."

"We must make North Korea immediately and fully comply with all relevant UN Security Council resolutions and abandon all its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," Abe insisted. 

On Wednesday, Washington demanded an oil embargo on Pyongyang and a freeze on the foreign assets of its leader Kim Jong-un in a drastic bid to force an end to the perilous nuclear stand-off.

South Korea protests over THAAD

Meanwhile in South Korea, protesters clashed with thousands of police over the deployment of a defence system aimed at countering North Korean missile attacks.

Amid the rising tensions, Seoul installed the four remaining launchers of the US anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course in the south early on Thursday. Two launchers had already been deployed.

More than 30 people were wounded when around 8,000 South Korean police broke up a blockade of about 300 villagers and civic groups opposed to the THAAD system deployment, fire officials said.

The decision to deploy the THAAD system has drawn strong objections from China, which believes its radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.