Seoul, June 19: North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to support reconstruction work in Russia’s Kursk region, a top Russian official said Tuesday, the latest sign of expanding cooperation between the nations.North Korea has already supplied thousands of combat troops and a vast amount of conventional weapons to back Russia’s war against Ukraine. In April, Pyongyang and Moscow said that their soldiers fought together to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, though Ukraine has insisted it still has troops present there.
Wrapping up a one-day visit to Pyongyang, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided to send 1,000 sappers to clear mines in the Kursk region and 5,000 military construction workers to restore infrastructure there, according to Russia’s state news agency, Tass.
Another Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, carried a similar report.
“Following the expulsion of invaders from Russian soil, we’ve agreed to continue our constructive cooperation, with the Korean side providing assistance in the restoration of the Kursk region,” Shoigu said, according to RIA Novosti. “This is a kind of brotherly aid being sent by the Korean people and their leader, Kim Jong Un, to our country.”
Shoigu said that Moscow and Pyongyang agreed to erect memorials in both countries in honour of North Korean soldiers who died while fighting in the Kursk region, according to Tass and RIA Novosti.
Kim repeats full support of Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim confirmed the contents of North Korea’s cooperation with Russia with regard to Kursk’s current situation but didn’t mention the dispatch of army construction workers and deminers cited by Russian media.
KCNA quoted Kim as expressing his resolve to “invariably and unconditionally support” what he called Russian efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Kim has previously made similar comments in support of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
KCNA also said that Kim and Shoigu approved some plans for “conveying long the heroic feats displayed by” North Korean troops in operations to liberate the Kursk area, an apparent reference to the memorial construction plan.
North Korea and Russia have never disclosed how many North Korean troops have been sent to Russia or how many of them were killed. But according to South Korean, U.S. and Ukraine assessments, about 15,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia. South Korea’s spy agency said in April that about 600 North Korean soldiers died on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts.