According to Russia’s foreign ministry, both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey condemned the most recent North Korean test, which fired an intermediate-range missile over northern Japan. | Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP Russia's foreign minister warns Tillerson: New North Korea sanctions could be 'dangerous'

New sanctions against North Korea could prove “dangerous,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call Wednesday night.

Details of the call were reported by The Associated Press and based on a readout of the call distributed by the Russian foreign ministry. As of early Thursday morning, the State Department had not released its own readout.


The call followed a declaration earlier Wednesday from President Donald Trump that “the U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!”

North Korea has ramped up its aggression in recent months, launching multiple ballistic missile tests. Some of the missiles would have been capable of reaching the continental U.S.

Trump, who has sworn never to allow North Korea to obtain a nuclear weapon capable of striking the U.S., threatened the repressive nation earlier this month with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

North Korea responded with a threat to attack the Pacific island of Guam, the U.S. territory most vulnerable to a North Korean missile, with an “enveloping fire.”

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According to Russia’s foreign ministry, both Lavrov and Tillerson condemned the most recent North Korean test, which fired an intermediate-range missile over northern Japan. But Lavrov told Tillerson that a fresh set of sanctions, on top of the recently instituted package imposed by the United Nations, would be “counterproductive and dangerous.”

