By Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) -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,

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.

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.