MOSCOW, July 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has taken cautiously South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin’s statement not ruling out likely deployment of US anti-ballistic missile defence systems THAAD in South Korea, Russian Foreign Ministry said at its website on Thursday.

Moscow urges Seoul to weigh up thoroughly possible consequences of this step.

“This cannot but be realised that this is actually the prospect for further expansion of the geography of deploying an American global missile defenыe system and bringing its elements already to the South Korean soil. Such developments will inevitably affect negatively regional strategic situation and may stir up an arms race in Northeast Asia and will bring about more complications to resolve the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula,” the ministry said.

“In a broader sense this will certainly have an negative impact on global strategic stability which unilateral US steps made to create a global anti-missile shield as well as those taken in the processes of control over weapons continue to undermine,” Russian Foreign Ministry added.

Russia was concerned over South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin’s statement not ruling out likely deployment of US anti-ballistic missile defence systems THAAD in South Korea.

“Such statements cannot but make us alarmed, as South Korean leadership had earlier stated repeatedly that the country intended to ward off probable missile threats by their own forces,” the Russian ministry said, adding that “We hope that South Korean leadership will weigh up thoroughly possible aftermath of such step, particularly in view of security of their homeland.