US-ROK nuclear deal to undermine global stability: Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW -- The recent nuclear agreement reached by the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) will have a negative effect on regional security and undermine global stability, said the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

"We took note of reports on an agreement that was reached between the United States and the ROK on joint planning with regard to the use of nuclear weapons," said the ministry's spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, in a statement.

"This development is clearly destabilizing... and will have serious negative consequences for regional security and will impact global stability," said the statement.

According to the statement, by committing to policies of "extended nuclear deterrence," the United States and its allies are duplicating schemes that Washington has been practicing for decades following the Cold War, and still practices with its NATO allies.

It added that such practices will ultimately undermine international security, lead to a further escalation of tensions, spur security crises, and provoke an arms race.

"We call on the US and its allies...to refrain from steps that lead to the weakening of the overall level of security for all states," said the statement.

The United States and the ROK jointly issued the Washington Declaration on April 26 as one of the outcomes of the ROK's President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit to the United States.

According to reports, the declaration says that the United States will upgrade the extended deterrence it provides to the ROK, including enhanced consultation over a nuclear crisis, increased military exercises and training activities, table-top simulation, the establishment of a new Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), and a further expansion of the US regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.