 "A Ukrainian serviceman patrols a street next to buildings damaged during recent fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region, August 16, 2024. File Image/Reuters")
North Korea will send thousands of workers to help Russia rebuild the war-torn city of Kursk. The development comes as Pyongyang is already facing backlash for sending its troops to the battlefield.
Reports by Russian state media say that the country’s Security Council Secretary, Sergei Shoigu, held talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Tuesday, where the two sides agreed on the arrangement, describing it “fraternal assistance”.
North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies during its more than three-year-long Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops and container loads of weapons to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from Kursk.
How many labourers will N Korea send?
On Wednesday, Shoigu said that North Korea would send a “division of builders, two military brigades [of] 5,000 people” and 1,000 deminers who would help Russia in the “restoration” of Kursk, according to a report by TASS.
“This is a kind of fraternal assistance from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country,” Shoigu said.
Kim and Shoigu discussed “items of immediate cooperation” as well as “long-term plans” to carry out “important matters agreed by the heads of states of the two countries through the exchanges of personal letters for several weeks,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Kim also expressed North Korea’s “steadfast” will to “invariably and unconditionally support” Russia’s policy to defend its “state sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
‘Issues of concern’
Seoul’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said the “acceptance and employment of North Korean overseas workers constitute a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions”.
“The South Korean government expresses serious concern over the continued illicit cooperation between Russia and North Korea and urges an immediate halt to such activities,” it said in a statement sent to AFP.
New South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office this month following a snap election triggered by his predecessor’s disastrous martial law bid in December, has pledged a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsLee’s administration recently halted the loudspeaker broadcasts that the country had resumed last year in response to a wave of trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang.
With inputs from agencies