Officials in Moscow said the Russian foreign ministry was working “behind the scenes” to find political solutions to the North Korea crisis.
They said they planned to hold talks with a representative of North Korea’s foreign ministry later today.
Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the non-proliferation and arms controls department, described the US approach as a dead end and said the tool of sanctions had almost been exhausted.
Mr Ulyanov spoke after North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said US President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserves the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down US strategic bombers even if they are not in the country’s air space.
Ri said Mr Trump’s Twitter comments, in which he said leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer” if he acted on his threats, amounted to a declaration of war.
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White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders called the suggestion “absurd” but North Korea has responded to Mr Trump’s comments by boosting defences on its east coast.
Tensions have escalated since North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3 but the rhetoric has reached new levels in recent days with leaders on both sides exchanging threats and insults.
South Korean Lee Cheol-uoo said the Pyongyang was bolstering its defences by moving aircraft to its east coast and taking other measures after US bombers flew close to the Korean peninsula at the weekend.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said war on the Korean peninsula would have no winner.
He said: ”We hope the US and North Korean politicians have sufficient political judgment to realise that resorting to military force will never be a viable way to resolve the peninsula issue and their own concerns.
“We also hope that both sides can realise that being bent on assertiveness and provoking each other will only increase the risk of conflict and reduce room for policy manoeuvres.
“War on the peninsula will have no winner.”
White House National Security Adviser HR McMaster defended Mr Trump’s rhetoric and said he agreed the risk was that Kim might fail to realise the danger he and his country faced.
Mr McMaster also acknowledged the risks of escalation with any US military option.
He said: ”We don’t think there’s an easy military solution to this problem.
“There’s not a precision strike that solves the problem.
“There’s not a military blockade that can solve the problem.”