Russia tells North Korea, US 'hot heads' to calm down

Russia's foreign minister said on Friday the leaders of North Korea and the United States should tone down their bellicose rhetoric and warned that a collapse of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers would only embolden Pyongyang.

"The exchange of threats is quite bad, unacceptable," Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a news conference." We have to calm down the hot heads," Lavrov said, adding that he was convinced a Russian-Chinese proposal could still pave the way for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis.

Lavrov added that a collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would give North Korea little incentive to drop its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Paul Simao)