PARIS, Aug. 12 -- France calls on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to comply without delay with its international obligations and to prevent any escalating tensions, according to a statement issued on Saturday by the Elysee.
In the statement, French President Emmanuel Macron "expresses his concern" over the deterioration of the ballistic and nuclear threat from the DPRK, "which undermines the preservation of international peace and security."
Macron's statement came amid a scalding war of words between the DPRK and the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" to deal with the nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula.
"If North Korea (DPRK) does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us... they should be very nervous," Trump said on Thursday.
The DPRK military has said that its plan to strike Guam with intermediate missiles will be ready by mid-August, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.
On Tuesday, Trump issued a controversial warning to the DPRK, saying that threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."
Days before the war of words, the United Nations Security Council, in an exceptional session on Saturday, unanimously adopted the Resolution 2371 to impose new sanctions on the DPRK for ignoring previous resolutions and its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
The French president also said in the statement that the DPRK "is now engaged in a dangerous escalation, which poses a serious threat to the security of its neighbors, as well as to the continuation of the international non-proliferation regime."
Macron called on the international community to act in "a concerted, firm and effective manner" so as to the DPRK back into unconditional recourse to dialogue, the statement added.