The Russian foreign ministry summoned South Korea's top diplomat in Moscow to lodge a formal protest against Seoul's unilateral sanctions against the Russia-North Korea military cooperation.

According to Russia's state-run Sputnik news agency on Friday, deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko summoned South Korean Ambassador to Russia Lee Do-hoon, calling Seoul's sanction measures on Russian vessels, individuals and corporate bodies "another unfriendly step."

Rudenko called on Seoul to "abandon counterproductive sanctions and force measures that provoke further increase in tension on the Korean Peninsula."