Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said he hopes the United States will not take what he called "very risky" unilateral military action against North Korea as it did recently in Syria.
Lavrov was responding on April 17 to Vice President Mike Pence's statement earlier in the day that the "era of strategic patience is over" with regard to North Korea's efforts to build nuclear weapons.
"In the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan," Pence said.
"North Korea would do well not to test his resolve, or the strength of the armed forces of the United States."
Lavrov condemned North Korea's "reckless nuclear actions," but said that if Pence's words could be understood as a threat to take unilateral action against North Korea, "then this is a very risky path."
"We find Pyongyang's adventurous missile launches unacceptable as they are a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions... But that does not mean that others can violate international law in response and use military force," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
"I hope that there will be no more unilateral actions like the one we have recently seen in Syria," he said, referring to the U.S. military's missile strikes on a Syrian airbase on April 7.
