Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary, made the announcement during a visit to Pyongyang.
North Korea will send thousands of military builders and deminers to help reconstruction efforts in Russia’s Kursk region, an area Ukraine successfully invaded and remained entrenched in for months, Russian media has reported, a further sign of the deepening military alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday that North Korea will dispatch 1,000 deminers and 5,000 military builders to the western region. Shoigu made the comments during his visit to Pyongyang for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea will be sending “a division of builders, two military brigades – 5,000 people” and 1,000 deminers to the Kursk region, Shoigu said on Tuesday. “This is a kind of fraternal assistance from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country.”
North Korean state media did not immediately confirm Shoigu’s visit, the second in less than two weeks.
North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies during its more than three-year-long Ukraine war, sending thousands of troops and conventional weapons to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from Kursk.
The United States and South Korea have expressed concern that, in return, Kim may seek Russian technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by his own nuclear-armed military.
“An agreement was also reached on continuing constructive cooperation,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Shoigu as saying.
Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal last November, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. Pyongyang has reportedly been directly arming Moscow to support its war in Ukraine.
When Shoigu met with Kim and senior military officials on June 4, the two sides said they wanted to expand and develop Russia-North Korea ties into “the powerful and comprehensive relations of strategic partnership”, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA.
In April, the two countries officially confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for the first time, saying that these troops had helped Russia to recapture the Kursk region – a claim contested by Ukraine.
Putin thanked North Korea at that time for its participation in the war and promised not to forget their sacrifices. More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers have died in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to British Defence Intelligence.
