SEOUL, September 21. /TASS/. Russia believes that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made unfounded and inflammatory allegations about defense cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang in his address to the UN General Assembly, the Russian Embassy in Seoul said in a statement on Telegram.
"It is certainly highly regrettable that in his address delivered at the high-level panel of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on September 20, the South Korean head of state joined in on the propaganda campaign initiated by Washington, propped up by the US and South Korean media, which aims to discredit cooperation between Russia and South Korea," the statement reads.
"We believe that such speculation and unfounded allegations, made in the 'best' traditions of 'megaphone diplomacy' and in line with methods similar to the use of the ill-famed vial that was once presented by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, are inflammatory and confrontational; they go hand in hand with the aggressive hybrid war against our country that the US-led collective West has unleashed," the embassy added.
In his UN address, Yoon Suk Yeol said, among other things, that South Korea considered North Korean weapons supplies in exchange for Russian military technologies to be "a direct provocation."
The embassy reiterated that Russia remained committed to its international obligations, including those pertaining to relations with "North Korea, our good neighbor and longtime partner."
"We urge the leadership of South Korea, a country with which Russia shares a long-standing tradition of mutually beneficial ties and cooperation, to be guided by a sober and objective analysis of the current situation and the negative impact that Seoul’s further pursuit of an anti-Russian policy may have on Russia-South Korea relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula," the statement added.