Russia's foreign minister urges US to show restraint over DPRK

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the United States on Wednesday to refrain from any military actions on the Korean Peninsula that would be "fraught with unpredictable consequences."

In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Lavrov said Russia also believed that any further increase of sanctions pressure on the DPRK would be counter-productive, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov and Tillerson also discussed Syria and the Gulf, the statement said.

The DPRK on Tuesday launched a ballistic missile over Japan's northern territory which has sparked angry reactions from countries in the region and escalated the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The missile, flying more than 2,700 kilometers in an easterly direction, was fired from a site in Sunan in Pyongyang at around 5:57 a.m. local time.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday condemned the act as an "outrageous" threat and demanded that Pyongyang should abandon all nuclear weapons and programs, and not launch any more missiles.

(DPRK)