This what REALLY Putin said on Sep,7:
Putin: Building up a military atmosphere, a hysteria, is, in my opinion, counter-productive. It will not get us anywhere.
Everything that is taking place is of course a provocation on the part of North Korea. This is quite obvious. They are provoking the situation.
But if they are doing it, believe me, they are not that stupid, so they count on a corresponding reaction from the partners and are trying to elicit such a reaction.
But why are you playing up to them? Did you ever think about it? That is number one.
Number two, they will not stop. I have already said at a recent press conference in China after the BRICS summit and I can repeat it, they know full well how the situation developed, for example, in Iraq when, under the pretext – which is now obvious to everyone – under the specious pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction a country and its leadership were destroyed, and even the family members and children were shot dead. They are aware of all this and they see possession of nuclear weapons and missiles as the only way to defend themselves. Do you believe they will give it all up?
We should say that we follow the path of cooperation, are ready to ensure their security, to formulate the conditions of work that they would understand and consider acceptable. I assure you, if this path is followed, the situation in the region as a whole, the relations between North and South will be transformed into cooperation and we can expect further steps.
But it is impossible to scare them.
What do we propose to them? Look, we say: “We shall not impose sanctions.” Which means you will live better. You will have more good, tasty food on your table and so on. You will have better clothes. But the next step, as they see it, is an invitation to a cemetery. They will never agree to that.
We should approach it seriously and thoroughly. This takes time and a professional approach.
I know that there are many reasonable people in the current US administration who understand that it is necessary to proceed carefully. Even at the middle level (at the State Department, at the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency) there are professional people who have faced this problem more than once and who deal with it year in and year out.
I very much hope that common sense will prevail and that, working together in a cooperative manner, we will move towards resolving this issue. I am sure this will happen sooner or later. The sooner the better.
Plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (original source, Kremlin Site)
