Russia on Thursday warned the United States against using missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to justify its military buildup on the Korean peninsula.
"We consider it inadmissible to use the developing situation to achieve unilateral military advantages, and to inject massively new types of weapons into the region," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing, adding that Moscow considered the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the Republic of Korea a "serious destabilizing factor."
Without a comprehensive settlement of existing problems via political and diplomatic means, which takes into account the concerns of all parties involved, it is impossible to move toward peace and stability in northeast Asia, the spokeswoman said.
"We see no alternative to the collective search for a new constructive strategy to break out of the current impasse in line with the general military and political detente and dismantling the confrontational architecture in the region," Zakharova said.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the DPRK had test-fired another missile, believed to be in response to ongoing U.S.-South Korea military exercises codenamed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, but failed with the missile exploded in the air.
South Korea has hurriedly launched the process of hosting a U.S. missile shield, in spite of continued opposition from its citizens and neighboring countries.
Two mobile launchers and some THAAD equipment arrived at the location of its deployment earlier this month.
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