The U.S.-South Korea joint military drills, codenamed Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) that kicked off on Monday, will not be conducive to easing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
A peaceful solution to the complicated situation on the Peninsula was not substitutable, she told a press conference, calling for the relevant parties to keep maximum caution.
She also hoped that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would not make any military response to the drills.
Any offensive behavior or deliberate incident could become a pretext for military conflict, Zakharova said, stressing that military operations should be reduced in the region to pave the way for the restoration of peace talks.
The UFG exercises involved some 17,500 U.S. and 50,000 South Korean troops and would continue through Aug. 31.
The DPRK military condemned the exercises on Tuesday, saying they would intensify the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and warned that the United States should be responsible for any possible disastrous consequences caused by the military drills.
