South Korea summons Russian envoy over comments on North Korea

The South Korean foreign ministry has summoned Russia's envoy in Seoul to lodge a complaint over Moscow's criticism of recent remarks by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear arsenal.

Jung Byung-won, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev on Saturday afternoon to stress that Moscow lashing out at Yoon's remarks would only have a negative impact on the relationship between the two countries.

The summons came after Yoon on January 31 condemned Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons to maintain the current regime, which Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called "biased" and "odious" in a statement released days after.

Zakharova said the heightened tension on the Korean peninsula was "primarily due to the brazen policy of the United States and its allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan", referring to South Korea by its official name.

She also said Seoul "doesn't seem to realise that the United States' leading position is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past", and that the South "may turn out to be no more than a small bargaining chip in Washington's geopolitical games".

Seoul's foreign ministry slammed her comments Saturday, calling them "rude, ignorant and biased below the level of a country's foreign ministry spokesperson".

"These remarks ignore the obvious and objective reality of North Korea's threatening rhetoric and continuous provocations raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia-North Korea ties

So far this year, nuclear-armed North Korea has declared Seoul its "principal enemy", closed agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over "even 0.001 millimetres" of territorial infringement.

Russia has recently formed close ties with Pyongyang, with South Korea and Washington claiming the North has shipped weapons to Moscow for use in its war with Ukraine.

Analysts have recently warned that North Korea could be testing cruise missiles ahead of sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, with Washington and Seoul claiming its leader Kim Jong Un has shipped weapons to Moscow, despite UN sanctions banning any such moves.

Kim made a rare overseas trip to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin, with Putin now set to pay a visit to Pyongyang in return.