On Wednesday, Russia's TASS news agency quoted Shoigu as saying North Korea would send a "division of builders, two military brigades [of] 5,000 people", as well as 1,000 deminers to help with the "restoration" of the Kursk region.

North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and sappers to Russia's Kursk region to help rebuild it after a Ukrainian incursion that North Korean troops helped Moscow repel this year,

Officials drastically understated outbreaks and deaths, depriving citizens of help, two U.S. research groups report, citing interviews with people inside North Korea.

At their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G7 leaders summit in Canada, the leaders of South Korea and Japan vowed Wednesday (June 18) to boost cooperation in the face of growing threats from the nuclear-armed North.

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday met with Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia's Security Council, in Pyongyang, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. Kim and Shoigu discussed cooperation plans for what Russia calls its "special military operation" in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine,

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said Sunday that his administration would work to restore long-defunct emergency communication channels with the regime.

Russia shares intelligence to allow Kim Jong Un to produce Shahed kamikaze drones - now being used to try and overwhelm 'Iron Dome' defense system