SEOUL, May 6. /TASS/. The Foreign Ministry of North Korea has denounced the US-backed drive of Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as it might worsen the security situation in Europe, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.

The news agency said citing a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry that NATO’s possible membership of Sweden and NATO would "only aggravate military confrontation with Russia and ‘upset’ military balance in the Baltic Sea area."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on April 28 that Washington would certainly back up applications from Finland and Sweden to join NATO in case Helsinki and Stockholm decided to submit them.

"The above facts prove that the US and the West are taking the Ukrainian situation as a golden opportunity to compress the strategic space of Russia by tightening the encircling net around Russia," Yonhap cited the ministry’s statement as saying.

The North Korean ministry warned, according to Yonhap, "that such moves by the US and other western nations will inevitably provoke stronger reaction from Russia."

The Times newspaper reported last month, citing sources that both countries might join NATO already in the summer of this year. According to the paper, Finland is expected to file its NATO membership bid in June to be followed by Sweden. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS in mid-April that Moscow would take required security and defense measures if Sweden and Finland joined NATO.

Yonhap news agency also reported today that in a separate statement on Friday the North Korean Foreign Ministry stressed that "US sanctions against Russia have proven to be futile, <...> Moscow posted a current account surplus of $58 billion in the first quarter this year."

"The reality clearly shows that the stick of sanctions wielded by the US and the West against Russia rather turns out to be a boomerang which flies back to their throat muscles," Yonhap cited the statement from North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying.

Russia’s military operation

The situation at the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military in recent months, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014.

Russian President Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.

After that, the United States, the EU and some other countries announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and businesses.