Russia worries of North Korean tests

The statement was issued about 16 hours after the tests and followed hours of cautious statements from Russian diplomats, the AP reports.

Photo: Russia worries of North Korean tests

"We consider that this is an ambiguous event, and that it does not aid the six-party process," the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev as saying earlier Wednesday. He called this North Korean test “inadmissible and unacceptable.”

But Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, gave a harsher assessment. “This is a clear provocation on the part of North Korean authorities, while a difficult dialogue regarding the nuclear program of North Korea is going on,” - Kosachev said in televised comments.

"The present test is a clear challenge to the world community, an inappropriate and excessive attempt to demonstrate military force and it undoubtedly needs a serious discussion or even condemnation at the level of the U.N. Security Council."