Seoul. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Putin held a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss their deepening ties and efforts to wage war against Ukraine, state media reported on Wednesday.

In tuesday’s talks, Putin praised the North Korean military’s “bravery, bravery and spirit of self-sacrifice” when it fought russian forces to stop a Ukrainian attack on russia’s Kursk border, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying that Putin also shared with Kim about his upcoming talks with Trump scheduled for Friday in Alaska. North Korean reports did not mention Trump’s meeting.

According to kcna, when the two leaders discussed expanding relations “in all areas” under the strategic partnership agreement signed at the summit last year, Kim told Putin that Pyongyang “will fully support all measures that the Russian leadership should take in the future as well.”.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has made Moscow his foreign policy priority, aiming to get out of diplomatic isolation and expand ties with countries that clash with Washington.

His government has rejected Washington and Seoul’s declared willingness to resume diplomacy aimed at reducing North Korea’s nuclear program. It went off track in 2019 after a failed summit during Trump’s first term.

North Korea has sent about 15,000 troops to Russia since last autumn and has supplied large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and ballistic missiles, in support of Putin’s war efforts against Ukraine, according to South Korean assessments.

Kim also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region. According to South Korean intelligence, this deployment may happen soon.