Overview

• Russian Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu said that Kim Jong-un agreed to send 1,000 deminers and 5,000 military construction workers to clear mines and rebuild infrastructure in the Kursk region.
• South Korea’s Unification Ministry called the deployment illegal under UN sanctions and urged Moscow to halt the use of North Korean labor.
• The agreement follows an April acknowledgment that about 15,000 North Korean soldiers are already fighting alongside Russian forces on the Ukraine front.
• Pyongyang has supplied Russia with artillery systems, rocket launchers and short-range ballistic missiles, and Moscow is expected to provide advanced military technology, fuel and food in return.
• Moscow and Pyongyang plan to erect memorials in both countries to honor North Korean troops killed in operations around Kursk.