North Korea’s foreign minister met her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday and assured him that Pyongyang would stand by Russia until this was achieved “Victory” in the war against Ukraine.

The meeting between the two foreign ministers comes amid Western reports that North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia, possibly for further deployment to the battlefield in Ukraine.

“We repeat that we will always stand steadfastly by our Russian comrades until Victory Day,” North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui told Sergei Lavrov during the televised talks, according to a Russian translation.

“We have no doubt that the Russian army and people, under the wise leadership of honorable Russian President Vladimir Putin, will certainly achieve a great victory in their holy struggle to defend the sovereign rights and security of their state,” she added added.

Lavrov praised the close relations between the armies and special services of both countries.

“This will also make it possible to resolve important security objectives for our and your citizens,” he said, adding that Moscow was “deeply grateful to our Korean friends for their principled stance on the events in Ukraine.”

During the meeting, neither foreign minister mentioned Western reports of North Korean troop deployments in Russia. Earlier, Lavrov and Choe unveiled a plaque honoring North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung’s visit to the USSR in 1949.

Washington said on Thursday it had received information indicating that there were around 8,000 North Korean troops stationed in the Kursk region that attacked Ukrainian forces in a surprise ground attack in early August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking to South Korean media this week, denounced the inaction of his Western allies on the issue of North Korean troop deployment.