International

Ivanov fears arms race

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW APRIL 10. The Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov viewed the war in Iraq had aggravated the North Korea crisis.

Mr. Ivanov said he had warned the Americans during a visit to the U.S. last September that military action in Iraq was fraught with unpredictable fallout in other parts of the world, above all in Korea. "It was one of our arguments against the war in Iraq," the Russian Defence chief was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying during a visit to South Korea on Thursday. "The war has spurred the arms race, not only in North Korea, but all over the world. It is quite obvious that more and more countries are trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The war in Iraq is "not our war," but the crisis in North Korea is different," Mr. Ivanov said.

"North Korea is not like Iraq to us, we share a border with North Korea," he told reporters in Seoul. He said Russia was ready to offer guarantees of independence and territorial integrity to North Korea to encourage it to re-enter NPT. Mr. Ivanov said he had no doubts that a "colonial administration" the U.S. was going to set up in Iraq would not survive for long and called for making the U.N. responsible for post-war Iraq.

"The sooner the issue is returned to the U.N. the better for everyone."

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