NoKo threat ‘blocks US’

North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons is preventing the US from launching a first strike against the rogue nation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview Sunday.

“The Americans won’t strike because they know for sure — rather than suspect — that [North Korea] has atomic bombs,” Lavrov said on Russia’s NTV television. “I’m not defending North Korea right now, I’m just saying that almost everyone agrees with this analysis.”

Lavrov said the US attacked Iraq “solely because they had 100 percent information that there were no weapons of mass destruction left there,” refuting arguments the American government made at the time.

Tensions ratcheted up over the weekend as President Trump and North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho traded threats. On Saturday, US Air Force B-1B bombers flew over international waters east of North Korea.

Lavrov said thousands of innocent people will suffer, in North Korea and in neighboring South Korea, Japan and even China and Russia, in the absence of a diplomatic solution.

Lavrov also cast doubt on the US plans for Syria.

The Americans “swear that they have no goal in Syria other than eliminating terrorists,” he said. “When it happens, we’ll see if this was true or the US nonetheless pursues some political goals.”