North Korea’s Kim met Russia’s top security official, state media says
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North Korea to send army builders, deminers to Russia’s Kursk region
North Korea will send military builders and sappers to help restore Russia’s western Kursk region after Ukraine’s incursion, Moscow’s security chief said. Mr Sergei Shoigu was in Pyongyang for the second time in June for talks with leader Kim Jong Un. The talks came on the one-year anniversary of the signing of a sweeping military deal between the two countries. North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies during Moscow’s more than three-year-long Ukraine offensive. Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, according to South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, citing the country’s intelligence service. New South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has pledged a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang. He recently halted the loudspeaker broadcasts the country had resumed in 2024 in response to a wave of trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang.
Mr Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s Security Council, was in Pyongyang for the second time in June for talks with leader Kim Jong Un on the one-year anniversary of the signing of a sweeping military deal between the two countries, state media from both countries reported.
North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies during Moscow’s more than three-year-long Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from Kursk.
Now, Pyongyang is going to dispatch more specialist military forces to help with reconstruction efforts, with both sides reaching a deal “on continuing constructive cooperation”, the TASS news agency quoted Mr Shoigu as saying.
North Korea would send “a division of builders, two military brigades – 5,000 people” as well as 1,000 deminers to the Kursk region, Mr Shoigu said.
“This is a kind of fraternal assistance from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country,” he was quoted as saying.
Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal in 2024 , including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the nuclear-armed North.
Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, according to South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, citing the country’s intelligence service.
Pyongyang in April confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine – and admitted that its troops had been killed in combat.
North Korean state media said Mr Kim had confirmed plans for further cooperation but did not provide details.
Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu discussed “items of immediate cooperation” as well as “long-term plans” to carry out “important matters agreed by the heads of states of the two countries through the exchanges of personal letters for several weeks,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Mr Kim also expressed North Korea’s “steadfast” will to “invariably and unconditionally support” Russia’s policy to defend its “state sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Plans to honour North Korean soldiers who died “in the operations for liberating the Kursk area” were also discussed, KCNA said.
‘Issue of concern’
Seoul’s foreign ministry on June 18 said the “acceptance and employment of North Korean overseas workers constitute a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions”.
“The South Korean government expresses serious concern over the continued illicit cooperation between Russia and North Korea and urges an immediate halt to such activities,” it said in a statement sent to AFP.
New South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June following a snap election triggered by his predecessor’s disastrous martial law bid in December, has pledged a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang.
Mr Lee’s administration recently halted the loudspeaker broadcasts the country had resumed in 2024 in response to a wave of trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang.
In turn, North Korea has stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had been a major nuisance for residents in the area.
“The mention of building infrastructure to expand various exchanges and cooperation appears intended to emphasise the possibility of increased interaction” between Russia and North Korea, Dr Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.
Dr Hong said railway links along the North Korea-Russia border are currently being restored, with the possible launch of air routes also under consideration. AFP
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North Korea plans to send military construction workers and deminers to Russia
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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.
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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 honor 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.
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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.
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The deepening ties between North Korea and Russia have raised worries among the U.S., South Korea and their partners that Russian President Vladimir Putin may in return provide Kim with much-needed sophisticated technologies that can help advance his nuclear and missile programs.
The two countries, both in confrontations with the U.S. and its allies, have sharply grown closer to each other in recent years. In 2024, Kim and Putin signed a landmark defense treaty that requires each side to provide aid if the other is attacked.
It was Shoigu’s third visit to North Korea in about three months. The two countries have exchanged high-level visits in past years, with Kim travelling to Russia in 2023 and Putin to North Korea in 2024 . Many observers say Kim could soon visit Russia again for another summit with Putin.
South Korea, U.S. and Japan react
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday expressed “grave concern” over what it described as ongoing illicit cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
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The U.S. State Department told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that Russia’s continued use of North Korean workers and soldiers were “deeply concerning” and stated that Pyongyang was “now relying on Russia to provide it with desperately needed funds in exchange for labor and soldier for hire schemes.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also expressed deep concern, saying advancing cooperation between Russia and North Korea threatens to jeopardize global security.
On Wednesday, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan flew fighter jets for a trilateral aerial training off South Korea’s southern Jeju island as part of their efforts to boost security cooperation to cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats, according to the South Korean air force.
In South Korea, there are worries that the 2024 North Korea-Russia defense treaty would lead to Russia intervening in a potential conflict on the Korean Peninsula. Experts say North Korea’s military would also obtain valuable combat experiences from the Russia-Ukraine war.
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South Korea, the U.S. and others have stated the ongoing North Korean-Russia military cooperation involve elements that constitute clear violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, which ban any weapons transfer involving North Korea and required member states not to issue work permits to North Koreans.
In its closed-door briefing to lawmakers on April 30, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that Russia had given North Korea air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and technology for spy satellite launches. The NIS said that 15,000 North Korean laborers have also been sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs, according to lawmakers who attended the briefing.
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Katie Marie Davies reported from Manchester, England. Dasha Litvinova contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia. ___
North Korea’s Kim met Russia’s top security official, state media says
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russia’s top presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The pair discussed a “special military operation” in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, state media KCNA reported. Kim has expressed ” unconditional support ” for Russia’s policies amid concerns by South Korean and Western officials that North Korea may be receiving Moscow’s help with advanced military technology. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia is a clear violation of U.N. sanctions, and called for the immediate halt of such cooperations.
Item 1 of 3 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Sergei Shoigu, in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 17, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS
SEOUL, June 18 (Reuters) – 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 , state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.
Kim and Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, discussed cooperation plans for Moscow’s rebuilding of the Kursk region, the report said, confirming earlier reports of the meeting by Russian media.
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Plans to commemorate the “heroic feats” of North Korean soldiers in the operations in the Kursk region, a part of Russia which Ukrainian forces infiltrated last year, were also discussed during the meeting, KCNA said.
North Korea will send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to the region to help rebuild it after the Ukrainian incursion that North Korean troops helped Moscow repel this year, Shoigu was cited as saying by the Russian state news agency TASS on Tuesday.
His visit to Pyongyang and meeting with Kim came nearly two weeks after his last meeting with the leader of the reclusive state on June 4.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia is a clear violation of U.N. sanctions, and called for the immediate halt of such cooperations between the two nations.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agreed to cooperate further on North Korea in a summit at G7 in Canada, Ishiba and the South Korean presidential office said.
Reuters investigation has found that North Korea has supplied millions of artillery rounds and thousands of troops to Russia for fighting in Ukraine.
Kim has expressed ” unconditional support ” for Russia’s policies amid concerns by South Korean and Western officials that North Korea may be receiving Moscow’s help with advanced military technology as well as economic assistance.
Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee; Editing by Leslie Adler, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces kill six and injure 49 in fresh wave of drone attacks
Civilians killed in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kherson and Sumy regions. 30 of the 58 drones fired at Ukraine were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The fresh strikes came as Ukraine marked a day of mourning after one of the worst attacks on Kyiv since the war began.
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At least six people have been killed in Ukraine, authorities said, as Russia launched a fresh wave of drone attacks hours after Kyiv suffered one of the deadliest strikes in months.
Civilians were killed in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kherson and Sumy regions, local authorities said. Kherson suffered the most lethal strike with two killed and 34 injured.
Russia launched 58 drones at Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, 30 of which were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The fresh strikes came as Ukraine marked a day of mourning on Wednesday after what Volodymyr Zelensky described as one of the worst attacks on Kyiv since the war began.
As rescuers continue to sift through the rubble, the current death toll in Kyiv stands at 21 after a residential apartment block was razed to the ground. Moscow’s forces had fired nearly 500 missiles and drones at 27 locations in the capital, Kyiv said.
Mr Zelensky told the G7 that the attack proved the need for Ukraine to be provided better air defences.
He added that “diplomacy is now in a state of crisis” afterDonald Trump left the summit a day early to address the conflict in the Middle East, skipping their meeting.