New York: Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned North Korea's latest missile launch, but warned that the world should talk to Pyongyang rather than threaten it.
Putin said nuclear tests of the type that Pyongyang had been carrying out in recent weeks were unacceptable, but a peaceful solution is needed to ease the ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"I want to confirm that we are categorically against the expansion of the club of nuclear powers,including with the Korean Peninsula and North Korea,"CNN quoted Putin, as saying, adding that any such move would be "harmful and dangerous".
Without mentioning US, Putin said that "intimidating North Korea is unacceptable."
North Korea has maintained that the missile test was in response to the nuclear dangers and threats posed by the US and its allies.
"We will conduct ICBM tests anytime and anywhere in accordance with the decisions made by our central leadership," North Korea's ambassador to China Ji Jae Pyong said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the launch of the Hwasong-12 missile on May 14 that reached an altitude of 2,111.5 kilometers (1,312 miles) and flew 787 kilometers.
