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,

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