MOSCOW, March 31. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry said excessive military activities in Northeast Asia were unacceptable.

“We are concerned about the continuing escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which resulted in the exchange of artillery fire between the DPRK (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in the area of the so-called Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea,” the ministry said.

“One cannot but see that periodic deterioration of the situation in the region coincides in time with the annual large-scale military exercises of the United States and the Republic of Korea,” the ministry said. “We have repeatedly noted the inadmissibility of excessive military activities in Northeast Asia, especially such provocative elements as bombing practices with the use of strategic bombers and landing operations to seize certain ‘administrative centres’ of foreign states,” the ministry said.