North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russia's top presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang on Tuesday and discussed a "special military operation" in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine,

Thousands of North Korean laborers are already toiling in Russia. A new contingent is headed to the region where North Korean troops fought Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a meeting with Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, the North's state media confirmed Wednesday, saying that Kim affirmed Pyongyang's cooperation with Moscow under their mutual defense treaty.