Kim Jong Un is sending another 6,000 people to Kursk, after an estimated 6,000 of his troops were killed or wounded there

• Russia says Kim Jong Un is sending another 6,000 people to Kursk.
• UK intelligence estimates 6,000 North Koreans have already been killed or wounded in Kursk.
• Sergei Shoigu said Kim is now sending 1,000 sappers and 5,000 workers to rebuild the oblast.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to send another 6,000 of his people to aid Russia in the Kursk region.

Russian state media on Tuesday cited Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Moscow’s security council, saying that Pyongyang had agreed to provide 1,000 sappers — combat engineers who deal with explosives and fortifications — and 5,000 construction workers to rebuild the oblast.

Shoigu gave no timeline on the deployment. He said the sappers would help to demine Kursk, where Ukrainian troops held pockets of territory for about eight months after a surprise incursion in the summer of 2024.

The North Korean workers, meanwhile, would “restore infrastructure facilities destroyed by the occupiers,” Shoigu told state media.

Shoigu’s announcement comes after he visited North Korea for the second time in two weeks. According to Russian state media, he’s visited Pyongyang three times in the last three months.

The new arrangement underscores a deepening relationship between Russia and North Korea that’s opened up a vital source of arms and troops for the Kremlin to maintain its offensive pace against Ukraine.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, has benefited from economic support, cash payouts, and military tech expertise from Russia. In November, Ukrainian officials had estimated that North Korea would receive up to $2,000 from Russia for each soldier it deployed to fight Ukraine.

“Sending North Koreans to support Russia is a quick and reliable way for Kim Jong Un to make money,” Soo Kim, a North Korea researcher and former CIA analyst, told Business Insider about Tuesday’s announcement.

“So in the short run, Kim gets money in exchange for providing manpower to Russia,” she added. “Long run, the access to critical military know-how will only strengthen his threat base.”

North Korean state media wrote on Tuesday that Kim had met with Shoigu. While it did not report on any details of fresh troops being sent to Kursk, it wrote that Kim had “confirmed the contents” and “accepted the relevant plans” of North Korea’s cooperation.

Kim initially sent some 12,000 troops in the fall of 2024 to Kursk, the oblast where Ukraine entered in August of that year and seized up to 500 square miles of Russian soil.

Aided by Pyongyang’s soldiers, the Kremlin’s forces recaptured almost all of those gains by March 2025, effectively ousting Ukrainian forces from the region by late spring.

In the process, Pyongyang reportedly suffered heavy casualties. Ukraine said in early 2025 that about 3,800 to 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.

On June 15, the UK Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update that it estimated that more than 6,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in Kursk.

Shoigu, who oversaw the first two years of Russia’s war in Ukraine as defense minister, said Moscow and Pyongyang are planning memorials for the North Korean troops lost.

“The heads of our states have decided to perpetuate the feat of the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army who took part in the military operations,” he told state media, referring to North Korea’s military.

The top Russian official didn’t say if Kim’s new tranche of personnel to Kursk would come from North Korea’s military. Pyongyang has typically been known to use its massive army to build large infrastructure projects.

In response to the announcement, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “closely monitoring developments” between North Korea and Russia.