State media images showed leader Kim Jong Un honouring the flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers killed helping Russia fight Ukraine, as Seoul's defence ministry said Tuesday it saw no signs of further troop deployments yet.

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 Korea will send thousands of military builders and deminers to help reconstruction efforts in Russia’s Kursk region, an area Ukraine successfully invaded and remained entrenched in for months, Russian media has reported, a further sign of the deepening military alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang.