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 in Ottawa, Seoul's defense ministry said Saturday, Paralel.Az reports citing Yonhap News Agency.

Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and his Canadian counterpart, Bill Blair, held the talks Friday (Canadian time) on the sidelines of the first "two plus two" meeting involving foreign and defense ministers of the two countries.

During the bilateral meeting, Kim and 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.

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.