Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the nuclear issues of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) must be resolved through diplomacy.

"We proceed from the principle that these problems should be solved exclusively by peaceful, diplomatic means," Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

The main objective is "to prevent non-proliferation violations, " he said.

Earlier in the day, the DPRK had announced it would conduct a nuclear test in the future as a war deterrent against the U.S. hostile policy.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the DPRK said it "will in the future conduct a nuclear test under conditions where safety is firmly guaranteed," the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The statement did not give a specific date or location of the upcoming test.

The six-party talks on the DPRK nuclear issue, which involves China, the DPRK, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, have been stalled since the first phase of the fifth round of talks ended last November.

Source: Xinhua