Thousands of North Korean laborers were reportedly sent to Russia in 2024, South Korea's intelligence agency revealed on Sunday.
The move is seen as part of growing cooperation between North Korea and Russia, as Moscow continues to grapple with labor shortages arising from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korea sent a substantial number of workers to various construction sites across Russia last year.
This deployment contradicts international sanctions that prohibit Pyongyang from sending workers abroad – a restriction imposed as part of global efforts to limit the country's ability to generate foreign currency for its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Under these resolutions, all North Korean workers were required to return home by December 2019.
Reports indicate that North Korea and Russia may have exploited student visa programs as a loophole to facilitate these labor exports. Data from Russia's federal statistics service, cited by Radio Free Asia, shows that 13,221 North Koreans entered Russia in 2023—an astonishing twelvefold increase compared to the previous year, according to Seoul's intelligence agency.
However, HNGN cannot independently verify these claims.
According to the agency report, among these entrants, 7,887 individuals claimed to be traveling for educational purposes, raising suspicions that student visas were being misused to mask labor deployments.
This labor dispatch comes at a time when North Korea has been actively supporting Russia's military campaign against Ukraine. South Korean officials estimate that Pyongyang has sent approximately 11,000 troops to Russia's western front-line region of Kursk to assist Russian forces in their fight against Ukraine.
The revelation of these labor deployments is likely to fuel further concerns about North Korea's ability to bypass sanctions and Russia's willingness to engage in such violations amid its protracted conflict in Ukraine.
The international community, particularly the United Nations and allied nations enforcing sanctions, may now face increased pressure to address these violations. They may also need to tighten restrictions on Pyongyang's labor exports and broader economic activities.
