Overview

• North Korea will dispatch 1,000 sappers to clear mines and 5,000 military construction workers to restore infrastructure in Russia’s Kursk region.
• Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu announced the troop commitment after a meeting with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang this week.
• The deployment stems from a mutual defense treaty inked by Kim and Vladimir Putin in June 2024 as part of expanding bilateral military cooperation.
• Moscow and Pyongyang plan to erect memorials in both countries to honor North Korean soldiers killed while fighting in the Kursk area.
• The United States and South Korea have warned that the troop dispatch and past arms transfers could breach UN Security Council sanctions.