MOSCOW – Russia and China expressed serious concern Wednesday about tension on the Korean peninsula and, in the face of increasingly belligerent rhetoric, joined international pressure for North Korea to return to nuclear talks.

The U.S. vowed it would never accept North Korea as an atomic weapons state and, at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, urged the country to negotiate with the world's great powers instead of making threats.

Only hours earlier, North Korea warned the United States and its allies of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation if provoked.

Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea is preparing an additional site for test-firing a long-range missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States. A Russian deputy defense minister said earlier that Russia would shoot down any North Korean missile headed its way but might not be able to detect missiles aimed in other directions.

Pyongyang, which is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, claims they are a deterrence against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with South Korea to topple its secretive regime.

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Kim Jong Il is a freaking nut.............everytime I see him he looks drunk.
I think the guy has a serious alcohol problem that feeds his insecurities.
The rest of his regime works to keep it quiet.............they constantly try to beat their chests and hold the other nations hostage for whatever.
Obama & Putin should use satellites to melt the next North Korean test-missle just before it is fired...............just to show NK some bit of reality.