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.
