Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin was reported saying that pursuing further sanctions against North Korea is "useless", saying "they'd rather eat grass than give up their nuclear programme”. This comes in response to a move by the US at the UN, following news that North Korea had successful exploded a hydrogen bomb on Sunday. On Monday the US tabled a new UN resolution on tougher sanctions. Russia’s Putin said diplomacy was the only answer. On that score China has welcomed a proposal by Switzerland to mediate negotiations with North Korea.