russian foreign ministry
© Sputnik/ Vladimir Pesnya
The situation around North Korea is unlikely to be resolved as long as the US is provoking Pyongyang, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday.

It is very difficult to hope that the situation around North Korea will be resolved as long as the United States is not ready to stop provoking Pyongyang, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday.

"We have not received anything from our American colleagues, except for general discussions that 'a political solution is possible, but all other solutions are possible as well,'" Ryabkov said in an interview with RT television.

"In such a situation, it is very difficult to hope for settlement. We must double our efforts now, especially when the Security Council is again talking about the permissibility of drafting a new sanctions resolution against the DPRK. Against this background, we must double our efforts in favor of finding a political and diplomatic solution," he said.

Earlier this week, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on a response to North Korea's latest nuclear test. Pyongyang said it successfully tested a hydrogen bombthat could be loaded on the warhead of an intercontinental ballistic missile, prompting global condemnation.

Moreover, the South Korean Environment Ministry has made a decision to conditionally approve the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense systems deployment on the territory of the Asian nation, according to local media reports.