Russia warning over North Korea pressure

WITH mounting fears of a nuclear-armed North Korea, a US envoy arrived in Seoul yesterday to try to defuse the crisis amid warnings from Russia that too much pressure on the communist state could backfire.

North Korea again denied it admitted having a covert nuclear weapons programme and warned the US its people would disappear in a sea of fire.

In the latest diplomatic response to North Korea’s decision to pull out of a global treaty preventing the spread of nuclear arms, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly was making his first visit to the region since October when he said Pyongyang admitted to a nuclear arms programme.