North Korea is sending 6,000 military personnel to assist in rebuilding Russia's Kursk region, following a visit by a top Russian security official to Pyongyang.

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 is deploying thousands of troops to the Kursk region in occupied Ukraine to aid the Russian military in reconstruction efforts. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu announced Tuesday that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has committed 6,