The South Korean foreign ministry on Saturday summoned Russia's envoy in Seoul to lodge a complaint over Moscow's criticism of recent remarks by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear arsenal.

Jung Byung-won, South Korea's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev on Saturday afternoon to stress that Moscow lashing out at Yoon's remarks would only have a negative impact on the relationship between the two countries, Reuters reported. 

"Deputy Minister Jeong said that it was very regrettable that Russia ignored the truth and unconditionally protected North Korea while criticizing the leader's remarks in extremely rude language, and emphasized that this would only worsen Korea-Russia relations," the ministry said in a statement.

On Jan 31, Yoon described North Korea as the only country in the world to legalize the preemptive use of nuclear weapons as tensions escalated over a series of weapons tests by the North since the start of the year.