North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russia's top presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang on Tuesday and discussed a "special military operation" in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine,

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.

Thousands of North Korean laborers are already toiling in Russia. A new contingent is headed to the region where North Korean troops fought Ukraine.