MOSCOW, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russia insists on a diplomatic settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"There is no alternative to diplomatic methods on the basis of dialogue among all interested parties," he said in an address to the Moscow 2017 Non-Proliferation Conference.
"The main task at the current stage is to prevent a military conflict, which will imminently lead to a large-scale humanitarian, economic and environmental catastrophe," he said.
Lavrov called on all involved parties to exercise restraint and support the roadmap proposed by Russia and China in July, which suggests a dual-track approach of advancing denuclearization while at the same time establishing a peace mechanism.
Meanwhile, the two countries demand that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
Lavrov said that the implementation of the roadmap will help reduce military activities and tensions on the Korean Peninsula and facilitate the formation of "equal and indivisible security" not only for the DPRK, but also for the whole Northeast Asia.
