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.

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu arrived in North Korea on June 17 on special instructions from President Vladimir Putin. He is to hold talks with the DPRK leadership, including the country's leader Kim Jong Un "as part of the implementation of the agreements reached during the last visit on June 4,

Former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who is currently on a visit to North Korea, has said that DPRK leader Kim Jong Un has decided to send "North Korean sappers and builders" to Russia to "rebuild" Kursk Oblast.