BERLIN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel reiterated calls for moderation in the United States and the DPRK on Monday as the two sides continued to trade barbs.
"It's bad enough that there is such a martial rhetoric," Gabriel told the Redaktionsnetztwerk Deutschland Monday, and cited former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt as saying that "100 days negotiation is better than a minute shooting."
Gabriel said both the DPRK and the United States should be held responsible for the current development of the situation, however, U.S. President Donald Trump's response of "fire and fury" rhetoric from his own golf club was inappropriate and wrong.
"I openly admit: This lack of responsibility shocks me," said the minister, who believes Trump's rash behavior risked eroding faith in a rules-based international order.
Gabriel's comments come after a week in which already tense relations between the DPRK and U.S. were further strained by increasingly bellicose statements from the two countries' leaders.
U.S. President Trump raised the specter of nuclear war by threatening to unleash "fire and fury" on the DRPK if it continued to engage in what Washington views as provocative missile tests. Shortly thereafter, Pyongyang warned that it could launch a preventive nuclear strike against the U.S. Pacific island of Guam.
