Russian President Vladimir Putin
expressed concern on Monday about the escalating tensions on the
Korean peninsula and said conflict there could cause greater devastation than the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
"I would make no secret about it, we
are worried about the escalation on the Korean peninsula, because we are neighbors,"
Putin told a joint news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit
to a trade fair in Germany.
"And if, God forbid, something
happens, Chernobyl which we all know a lot about, may seem like a child's fairy
tale. Is there such a threat or not? I think there is," he said.
Chernobyl in Ukraine was the site of the
worst nuclear power disaster in history in April 1986 when one of its reactors
exploded during a safety experiment, sending out a plume of highly radioactive
fallout.
Large areas of Ukraine, neighboring Belarus
and Russia were contaminated. Radioactive dust also spread across parts of Western
Europe.
Putin, whose vast country shares a border
with North Korea, urged all protagonists in the Korean crisis to act calmly and
to support a diplomatic solution of "problems that have piled up for many
years".
The Russian leader praised a U.S. decision
at the weekend to postpone a planned missile test as part of efforts to reduce
tensions on the Korean peninsula.
"I think we should all thank the U.S.
leadership for this step. I hope it will be noticed by our North Korean
partners, that certain conclusions will be drawn, everyone will calm down and
start joint work to ease the situation."
Merkel told the same news conference that
North Korea should halt its "provocations".
Speculation has been mounting that North
Korea will launch some sort of provocative action in coming days - an arms test
or a missile launch - after weeks of bellicose threats against the South and
the United States.
The prospect of another test has further
boosted tensions, already driven up by Pyongyang's fury over the imposition of
new U.S. sanctions after its last nuclear test in February. Earlier on Monday
South Korea rebuffed suggestions that a North Korean nuclear arms test may be
imminent.
REUTERS