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Seoul warns Russia ‘rude’ remarks about Yoon’s North Korea policy would worsen ties
- South Korea sought the meeting after Russia’s foreign ministry called President Yoon’s criticism of Pyongyang’s arms trade with Moscow ‘biased’ and ‘odious’
- A minister added that Russia’s decision to ‘ignore the truth’ and ‘protect North Korea’ was corrosive to bilateral relations
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South Korea has called in Russian diplomats to lodge complaints over Moscow’s criticism of President Yoon Suk-yeol for remarks about North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear arsenal, the foreign ministry said.
Chung Byung-won, South Korea’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, summoned Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev on Saturday to say that Moscow lashing out at Yoon’s remarks would only have a negative impact on the relationship between the two countries, the ministry said.
“Deputy Minister Chung said that it was very regrettable that Russia ignored the truth and unconditionally protected North Korea while criticising the leader’s remarks in extremely rude language, and emphasised that this would only worsen South Korea-Russia relations,” the ministry said in a statement.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has deepened ties with Seoul’s rival, North Korea, since invading Ukraine in 2022. The United States and its allies have condemned what they say have been significant North Korean missile deliveries to Russia to help its war effort.
Yoon told a meeting on Wednesday of defence and security officials: “The North Korean regime is going through fire and water solely for the sake of maintaining its hereditary totalitarian regime, while blatantly ignoring international law and UN Security Council resolutions by trading arms with Russia.”
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The next day, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Yoon’s remarks “blatantly biased”.
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