Putin posted the warning on the Kremlin website before he left for the BRICS nations summit in China, Reuters reported. Putin called on the two nations to open up dialogue with one another.
“It is essential to resolve the region’s problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions [for such talks],” Putin wrote. “Provocations, pressure and bellicose and offensive rhetoric is the road to nowhere.”
Putin wrote that relations between the two countries had worsened to the point that it had “balanced on the verge of a large-scale conflict.”
“In Russia’s opinion the calculation that it is possible to halt North Korea’s nuclear missile programs exclusively by putting pressure on Pyongyang is erroneous and futile,” Putin wrote.
On Tuesday, North Korea escalated the conflict, launching a midrange ballistic missile over U.S. ally Japan. Kim Jong Un, the leader of the Hermit Kingdom, called the launch a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam, which is home to a number of key U.S. military bases.
President Trump said Tuesday that “all options are on the table” after the missile launch.
“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” Trump said in a written statement released by the White House.