North Korea officially announced Wednesday that it had conducted test launches of ballistic missiles and claimed it was the country's sovereign right. The communist nation launched the missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, despite a moratorium on missile tests and initial reports suggested at least one weapon had landed close to Russian waters.
"We have no reason to think that North Korea's missile program is aimed at Russia because the defense capabilities of Russia and North Korea are incomparable," Putin said during an Internet conference arranged by the BBC and Russian Web portal Yandex.
The president also said that Russia's missile defense systems were in good condition together with the early warning system.
Putin said that Russia had adopted a program on defense strategy and armed forces development that was designed to improve the quality of the defenses.
"I want to reiterate that our equipment tracked no warheads or other [missile] parts falling either into our territorial waters or our economic zone," Putin said.
