Pyongyang’s top diplomat also tells Russian counterpart of US and South Korea ‘nuclear plot’ against North Korea.

North Korea will support Russia until it achieves victory in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in Moscow, as the United States warned that thousands of Pyongyang troops were on the Ukrainian border and could soon be deployed in battle .

During her meeting on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Choe also accused the US and South Korea of ​​plotting a nuclear attack on her country.

“Our traditional, historically friendly relations, which have traveled the proven path of history, today rise to a new level of relations of invincible military camaraderie,” she said, praising the role played in this by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She said North Korea had no doubt that under Putin’s “wise leadership” the Russian army and people would “achieve a great victory in their holy struggle to protect the sovereign rights and security interests of their state.”

“And we also assure that we will stand steadfastly with our Russian comrades until the day of victory,” Choe said.

Lavrov spoke of the “very close ties” between the two countries’ militaries and said this allowed them to solve important security tasks together.

The two did not comment on statements from leaders in Ukraine, South Korea and their Western allies that Pyongyang had sent about 10,000 North Korean soldiers to Russia to fight in Ukraine.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as many as 8,000 North Korean soldiers were in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Russia in August in a surprise raid, and that he expected them to would fight the war against Ukraine. the coming days.

“We are deeply grateful to our Korean friends for their principled stand on the events that have now unfolded in Ukraine as a result of the West’s move to push NATO eastwards and encourage an openly racist regime to eradicate the Russian,” Lavrov said.

Choe told Lavrov that the situation on the Korean peninsula could become “explosive” at any moment, given threats from Washington and Seoul, but did not provide any evidence to support her accusations.

She said North Korea should strengthen its nuclear arsenal and perfect its readiness to launch a nuclear retaliatory strike if necessary.

On Thursday, Pyongyang confirmed it has launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward waters off its east coast, in what was the longest flight time yet for a North Korean missile, authorities in South Korea and Japan said, prompting fears about the development of advanced weapons are increasing. the reclusive nation.

Kim attended the missile test launch and warned his enemies, describing it as an expression of his country’s determination to respond to external threats to North Korea’s security, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

On Friday, North Korea boasted that the ICBM it launched was “the most powerful missile in the world” and identified it as Hwasong-19.