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`.-AFP