Vladimir Putin says pressure on North Korea 'futile'

Pressuring North Korea over its nuclear missile programme is "misguided and futile", Russian President Vladimir Putin says, arguing that only dialogue without preconditions can resolve the crisis. The Korean Peninsula was "balancing on the brink of a large-scale conflict", Putin wrote.  
 
"Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile programme is misguided and futile," he wrote in the article sent to media in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - the BRICS member states.

"The region's problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road." Putin said Russia and China, North Korea's most important ally, had drawn up a plan to ease tensions and create lasting peace without the use of threats or military force.

UCJ, UNILORIN.