Vladimir Putin Says Trump’s Approach to North Korea Is ‘Futile’

Russian President Vladmir Putin has warned that the Korean peninsula is at risk of “large-scale conflict” if further pressure is put on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

“Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile [program] is misguided and futile,” Putin wrote in a letter published on the Kremlin’s website ahead of a summit of the so-called BRICS nations next week.

“The region’s problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions,” Putin added. “Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road.”

President Donald Trump said recently that “all options” were on the table after North Korea fired a missile over the northern island of Japan. It was the latest in a series of missile tests and threats against the U.S.

Experts now believe that North Korean missiles have the capacity to reach the U.S. mainland.