SEOUL: South Korea summoned Russia’s ambassador on Saturday to protest “rude and ignorant” remarks after Moscow’s foreign ministry blamed Seoul for rising tensions on the peninsula.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has this year 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 closer ties with North Korea, with the South and United States claiming Pyongyang has shipped weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

Moscow’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week 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.

Zakharova made the remarks when asked about South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s recent description of the North as the only country in the world that has legislated the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons.

Calling Yoon’s remarks “blatantly biased”, she 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”.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2024