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Approach of US Navy to Korean Peninsula Opens Room for Provocations - Moscow

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USS Ronald Reagan - Sputnik International
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Moscow has called on Washington to immediately reduce the intensity of rhetoric on Korean crisis, Georgiy Borisenko, Director of the North America Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Wednesday.

The comments come as the American warships, led by the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, head toward the North Korean coast.

"The situation is very dangerous, it worries us very much, especially because we have borders with North Korea," Georgiy Borisenko told Sputnik.

"We have repeatedly said this to the Americans, urging them to solve this problem [the Korean crisis] exclusively by political and diplomatic means. We believe that it is always possible to agree on a mutually beneficial basis to avoid catastrophic developments," the diplomat stressed.

USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, leaves from its home port to be deployed in waters near Japan, in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo May 16, 2017 - Sputnik International
USS Ronald Reagan Supercarrier to Conduct Exercises Off Korean Peninsula
He further noted that the US, in working contact with Russia, as well as in public rhetoric, does not rule out any options for resolving the situation around the Korean Peninsula.

"But on our part, it is constantly stressed that this is a very dangerous game, that it is necessary to immediately reduce the intensity of rhetoric, because even verbal accusations are exacerbating the situation, not to mention specific actions when naval armadas are being pulled up to the DPRK coasts," Borisenko stated.

Earlier in September, the US Navy announced that the entire USS Ronald Reagan strike group, which is comprised of four destroyers and two submarines, is set to participate in military drills alongside South Korean ships in late October.

The Pentagon then claimed that the exercises had been planned far in advance and are not a response to current tensions with Pyongyang.

North Korea nevertheless regards it as the buildup of US military presence in the area amid the escalations of tensions between the two countries over Pyongyang's missile launches and nuclear tests and subsequent war of words between them.

In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly earlier in September, US President Trump noted that the US "has great strength and patience," but threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if his home is "forced to defend the United States or its allies."

In response to the speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a statement, warning his opponent of the "highest level of hardline countermeasure in history."

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