ANKARA 

South Korea and Canada called on North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia and stop helping Moscow in its war against Ukraine, local media reported on Saturday. 

A joint statement, following a meeting of the two countries' foreign and defense ministers in Ottawa on Friday, labeled the deployment "a significant escalation with dangerous implications for security and stability in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.”

The two sides also condemned North Korea's missile launches, including the new intercontinental ballistic missile launch on Thursday.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that 8,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in the Kursk region, situated near the Ukrainian border.

Pyongyang has not yet responded to Blinken’s claim, however, on Friday, North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui pledged that her country would "powerfully support and assist the Russian army" until its victory in Ukraine.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid