North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and sappers to support reconstruction work in Russia’s Kursk region, a top Russian official said on Tuesday, the latest sign of expanding cooperation between the two nations.

North Korea has already supplied thousands of combat troops and a vast amount of conventional weapons to back Russia.

In April, Pyongyang and Moscow said their soldiers fought together to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, although Ukraine has insisted it still has troops present there.

Wrapping up a one-day visit to Pyongyang, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided to send 1,000 sappers to clear mines in the Kursk region and 5,000 military construction workers to restore infrastructure there, according to Russia's state news agency, Tass.

Another Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, carried a similar report.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday that Kim confirmed the contents of North Korea’s cooperation with Russia with regard to Kursk’s current situation but didn't mention the dispatch of army construction workers and sappers cited by Russian media. (AP)