Russia's foreign ministry has summoned South Korea's top envoy to Moscow to protest against Seoul's sanctions on its vessels and nationals, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported Friday.

On Tuesday, South Korea imposed sanctions on two Russian individuals and their companies involved in the illegal sending of North Korean IT workers overseas, as well as two Russian vessels involved in shipping containers of military supplies between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko summoned South Korea's Ambassador to Moscow Lee Do-hoon and said that Moscow considers the sanctions as "another unfriendly step" by Seoul, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Sputnik.

Moscow also called on Seoul to "abandon counterproductive sanctions and force measures that provoke a further increase in tension on the Korean Peninsula," it quoted the statement as saying. (Yonhap)