Ottawa: Defense ministers of South Korea and Canada condemned North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia and discussed ways to enhance defense cooperation between their countries during a bilateral meeting, Seoul’s defense ministry said Saturday. In the talks held at Canada’s Department of National Defense in Ottawa on Friday, Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and his Canadian counterpart, Bill Blair, strongly denounced the troop dispatch as a violation of U.N. resolutions and an “illegal act” that threatens peace on the peninsula and the rest of the world. They pledged to work closely with the global community in response.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the meeting comes amid rising international concerns over Pyongyang’s expanding military alliance with Moscow. The United States said on Thursday there were 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, with 8,000 of them deployed to the country’s western front-line Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days. Kim also expressed his appreciation
for Canada’s contribution to maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula and in the broader region through its active enforcement of sanctions against North Korea and support for the United Nations Command. He emphasized the importance of continued cooperation between the two nations to further enhance regional and global security.

Blair underscored South Korea’s strategic importance within the Indo-Pacific region and advocated for expanding defense cooperation to strengthen a “rules-based international order.” They also agreed to seek more chances for expanding cooperation in the fields of defense industry and defense science and technology, with an aim to create a mutually beneficial partnership model for both countries, according to the ministry.