Moscow, December 27 (RHC)-- The secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation (SCRF) warns that tens of thousands of U.S. nationals will lose their lives in case a full military action on the Korean Peninsula breaks out. 

“If large-scale hostilities break out on the Korean Peninsula, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens [who live in South Korea] will die,” Nikolai Patrushev told Russian media in a press conference in the Russian capital, Moscow, adding that such an appalling outcome would be “unacceptable casualties in every country’s military language.” 

The security official reiterated that Pyongyang had already positioned its artillery and rocket launch sites as close as 50 kilometers from the South Korean capital city of Seoul, a vibrant metropolis accommodating some 10 million people, including some 250,000 American citizens. 

“Today, the U.S. makes aggressive [and] provocative statements against the [North Korean] leadership and the entire North Korean people, and conducts large-scale aerial and naval drills together with South Korea,” Patrushev added, saying the White House was carrying responsibility for contributing to “a vicious circle” of tension on the peninsula. 

Patrushev’s warning came less than two weeks after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised the alarm over the danger of “sleepwalking” into a war with the North over its nuclear and missile programs, warning at the time that such a catastrophe might have “very dramatic circumstances.” 

Tensions have been building on the Korean Peninsula following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang as well as threats of war and personal insults traded between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.  Trump and other senior U.S. officials have threatened North Korea with total destruction if it continues what they call nuclear “provocations.” 

Pyongyang has been under a raft of crippling UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches.  The North has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the U.S. and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.