Moscow: North Korea will send military builders and deminers to help restore Russia's Kursk region, Russian news agencies reported Moscow's security chief as saying Tuesday while he was on a trip to Pyongyang. North Korea has become one of Russia's main allies during Moscow's years-long war in Ukraine.

According to France24.com, North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to support reconstruction work in Russia's Kursk region, as reported by Russian state media. This move signifies another step in the expanding military partnership between the two nations.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu, who stated that North Korea will dispatch 1,000 deminers and 5,000 military construction workers to the Kursk region. Shoigu made this announcement during a visit to Pyongyang for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Russia's Tass news agency earlier reported that Shoigu arrived in the North Korean capital on Tuesday on an unspecified special mission from Putin and was expected to meet with Kim. North Korean state media did not immediately confirm the visit.

In April, Pyongyang and Moscow officially confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for the first time, stating that soldiers of the two countries were fighting alongside each other to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk border region. Putin expressed gratitude to North Korea for its participation in the war and vowed to remember their sacrifices.

Also in April, South Korea's spy agency informed lawmakers that North Korea suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths, on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts. The National Intelligence Service reported that 15,000 North Korean laborers have also been sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs, according to lawmakers who attended the NIS's closed-door briefing.