President Putin: 'North Korean people are ready to eat grass'

Russia's leader said further sanctions against North Korea would not stop its nuclear program.

President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on September 5 in Xiamen, China. Photo: Reuters

"North Koreans will eat grass rather than give up their nuclear development program if they do not feel safe," Russian President Vladimir Putin said, assessing the sanctions being promoted at the UN Security Council.

According to Russia's Sputnik website, during a press conference in Xiamen City (China) while attending the summit of emerging countries (BRICS group), the Russian leader questioned the journalists: "So do you think that if sanctions are imposed, North Korea will give up its set goals, will it give up making weapons of mass destruction?"

He stressed that Pyongyang must have known the fate of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hanged after his regime fell to a US-led invasion in search of weapons of mass destruction.

After Pyongyang's sixth nuclear test, Moscow also condemned North Korea's actions but still maintained its stance of seeking a solution for the Korean peninsula through diplomacy and dialogue.

From China, the Russian president warned: "Creating a feverish frenzy about military solutions will not lead to anything good. All it will do is lead to a global catastrophe with huge human losses."

The warning was clearly aimed at US statements that "solutions, including military ones, are on the table" and that it was ready to use nuclear capabilities to protect two allies in East Asia.

Even the solutions to increase sanctions to "completely isolate" North Korea that South Korea and Japan have been lobbying for are considered "useless and ineffective" by Mr. Putin.

"There is no other solution to the North Korean nuclear problem than a peaceful and diplomatic one," the Kremlin leader stressed.

A new war in Northeast Asia, if it happens, will have consequences for the whole world, both politically and economically. According to calculations by experts published by CNBC on September 4, up to 40% of the value of the economy will be directly affected if the Korean War breaks out.

In particular, expanding the war to Northeast Asia (in addition to the battlefields in the Middle East and Southwest Asia) would further weaken America's financial situation.

So far, China and Russia have always opposed the US using military force against North Korea. Both Moscow and Beijing have proposed a "freeze-freeze" solution to resolve the crisis, in which the US and South Korea would stop joint military exercises in South Korea in exchange for North Korea halting missile and nuclear tests, but Washington has firmly rejected it.

According to Tuoi Tre