North Korea will send thousands of workers to help rebuild Russia’s war-torn Kursk region, Moscow’s security chief has said.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, who held talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in its capital Pyongyang on Tuesday, described the deployment as “fraternal assistance”, Russian state media reported.
Neighbouring South Korea and Japan were quick to condemn the plan, with Seoul it saying it was a violation of UN sanctions on North Korea.
For months concerns have swirled of deepening military collaboration between the two states, amid reports of thousands of North Korean soldiers helping Russia fight its war on Ukraine.
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.
“This is a kind of fraternal assistance from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country,” Shoigu was quoted as saying, according to an AFP report.
North Korean state media also added that the meeting saw both Kim and Shoigu discuss other “long-term plans”.
South Korea was quick to respond, with a foreign ministry official saying they had “grave concerns” over the “continuing illegal co-operation between North Korea and Russia”, local media reported.
Japan has also expressed worries over the co-operation.
“We are seriously concerned about these developments as it will worsen the Ukrainian situation and affect the regional security environment surrounding Japan,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters yesterday.