North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) plans to send 6,000 workers to help rebuild the Kursk region of Russia after Ukraine’s incursion, Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu (L) told Russian state media Tuesday. Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE

SEOUL, June 18 (UPI) — North Korea will send 6,000 military workers and combat engineers to help rebuild Russia’s Kursk region, Moscow’s top security official said, in the latest show of growing ties between the two countries.

The announcement came on Tuesday as Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu visited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang for the second time this month.

Kim “has decided to send 1,000 sappers to Russia to clear mines on Russian territory, as well as 5,000 military construction workers to restore infrastructure destroyed by the occupiers,” Shoigu said, according to Russian state media TASS.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti also reported on the visit, saying Shoigu came to Pyongyang on special instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The dispatch of workers is “fraternal help from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country,” Shoigu said.

North Korea has sent some 14,000 troops to help Russia recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces, according to a recent report from the 11-country Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team. Pyongyang acknowledged sending the troops for the first time in April.

Moscow and Pyongyang are planning to create memorials for the Korean soldiers who died while fighting for Russia, Shoigu said Tuesday. His visit coincides with the one-year anniversary of the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership by Kim and Putin in Pyongyang.

In addition to troops, the North has shipped as many as 9 million rounds of mixed artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition and at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, according to the MSMT report.

South Korea, the United States and its allies believe North Korea is receiving advanced weapons technology and economic assistance in return.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern over the continuing illegal cooperation between North Korea and Russia.”

“We urge the North to stop such actions immediately,” the ministry said in a statement.