.Incident in Korean Peninsula should not isolate DPRK further.

23/11 Tass 248

MOSCOW, November 23 (Itar-Tass) - The incident in the Korean Peninsula
should not be a reason for deepening the international isolation of North
Korea, said confidently on Tuesday first deputy head of the State Duma
International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky.
He did not preclude a chance that "NATO and the US will try to
aggravate the Tuesday incident, since they earlier placed the DPRK on the
axis of evil". "My subjective stand is that it is necessary to avoid
further isolation of North Korea. We should work with Pyongyang actively
both within bilateral contacts and at international organisations," the
legislator said.
"The more we turn the country into a rogue in our collective stands in
the international arena, the more the country will feel itself a rogue,"
he explained.
Slutsky emphasised that Russia would take all diplomatic efforts to
prevent escalation of tension and war in the Korean Peninsula.
"In this case, taking into account specific features of the North
Korean regime, it is difficult to forecast the development of the
situation in future, but Russia will participate, for sure, in the
examination of the event, hold talks so as to stave off transition of this
incident into large-scale operations," he stated.
The deputy noted that Moscow and Pyongyang have always had
"sufficiently constructive relations", and Russian diplomacy "more
efficiently than others works in the North Korean direction".
"Any use of force in unacceptable; it is necessary to learn settle
conflicts in the politico-diplomatic way in the 21st century," the
parliamentarian emphasised.
In turn, head of the Duma Defence Committee Viktor Zavarzin expressed
confidence that it is necessary to invite the UN Security Council to
settle the conflict situation in the Korean Peninsula. He reckons that
"the international community should actively participate in settling this
situation".
"I believe that force methods and belligerent conduct in relations
between the North and South Koreas are unacceptable," the legislator
emphasised. "Such irresponsible actions can lead to a flare-up of an armed
conflict, and this cannot be permitted," he is convinced.
The armed conflict in the Korean Peninsula, the largest over the past
50 years, took place on Tuesday at the dawn in the area of the island of
Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea where the disputable division line runs
between the North and South Koreas. According to reports from Seoul, the
island was shelled from the North, and South Korea returned fire.
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