Korea conflict can make Chernobyl seem like fairy tale: Putin

Russia has warned that a possible nuclear conflict on the Korean Peninsula would be far more destructive than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

“I would make no secret about it, we are worried about the escalation on the Korean Peninsula because we are neighbors,” Russian President Vladimir Putin made the comment at a joint press conference with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.

Putin noted that if something bad takes place “Chernobyl…may seem like a child’s fairy tale. Is there such a threat or not? I think there is.”

In April 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine witnessed what is considered as the worst nuclear accident in history after one of its reactors went off during a safety experiment.

Following the explosion, a cloud of highly radioactive dust was created, contaminating vast parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, killing dozens and causing long-term health effects.

The Russian president also called for calm in the region and urged all sides involved in the Korean crisis to back a diplomatic resolution of “problems that have piled up for many years.”

Expressing Moscow’s opposition to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Putin added that his country supports denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

On March 30, North Korea declared that it is in a “state of war” with South Korea.

Pyongyang also warned that if Washington and Seoul launched a preemptive attack, the conflict “will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.”

The warning came after the US sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea as part of “military exercises” with the Southeast Asian country.