Government of Prime Minister Theresa May should stay out of US-North Korea war: UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Photo by AFP)

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has warned the government of Prime Minister Theresa May against taking part in any military action against North Korea, amid a standoff that has put the North on a collision course with the United States.

“As [US President] Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un trade threats and tensions escalate, the danger is growing,” Corbyn wrote in an article for the Sunday Mirror.

“In the interests of sanity and safety for the whole world, global ­pressure for dialogue and diplomacy must be overwhelming,” he added. "Our government must not drag our country into any military action over the Korea crisis, including joint exercises."

The comments came after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a number of tweets that London was working with Washington and its allies to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

On Tuesday, Trump said North Korea “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continues to threaten the US, after North Korea warned it will teach the US a "severe lesson" with its nuclear weapons if Washington would dare to opt for military action against Pyongyang.

Following the American head of state’s inflammatory remarks, Pyongyang said it was "carefully examining" a plan to strike the American Pacific territory of Guam with its array of advanced ballistic missiles.

The two sides have been engaged in a heated standoff over Pyongyang’s recurrent test-launches of ballistic missiles that Washington says are capable of hitting most of the US mainland. The North’s nuclear tests have also irked the US.

“US-led regime-change wars and the threat of more to come have made this crisis more dangerous and difficult to resolve,” Corbyn wrote.

He took the opportunity to push for global nuclear disarmament, a policy he has advocated for years.

“A Labour government would be committed to achieving a nuclear-free world, as are all signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the Labour head noted.

“We can only head off the spread of nuclear weapons if existing nuclear states make meaningful moves towards disarmament,” he argued.