Some North Korean workers sent to Russia help Ukraine war effort, report says

SEOUL, South Korea — A Russian network of brokers sponsored by Pyongyang has taken North Koreans to work in Russia under exploitative conditions and in violation of U.N. sanctions, some in factories that make items Moscow is using in Ukraine’s war, a rights group said.

The neighbors have significantly strengthened their military and political ties since pledging renewed cooperation at a summit of their leaders in 2023, while a mutual defense pact is the cornerstone of a partnership treaty signed the following year.

In its report, The Hague-based Global Rights Compliance (GRC) group said North Korea was fundraising through the operation, taking a large portion of the wages earned by its workers who are sent to Russia and remain there under threat of reprisals.

The group cites open-source information about the operation led by a Russian businessman, facial recognition technology to identify North Korean officials and evidence collected by its members posing as potential employers.

“This investigation reveals a dangerous convergence between the military ambitions of the two states,” declared the group’s legal advisor, Elise Lauriot Prévost.

These include “North Korea’s use of forced labor abroad to finance its weapons program, and Russia’s growing reliance on labor to support its war economy,” she added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the North Korean embassy in Moscow did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The human rights group said it contacted two Russians identified as key figures in the network, but only one responded, denying the accusation. It was not clear whether the other had responded.

Since 2024, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to fight alongside the Russians in the war in Ukraine, along with weapons to replenish Moscow’s dwindling arsenal while gaining valuable battlefield experience, South Korea’s intelligence agency said.

To evade UN sanctions that ban member countries from hiring North Korean workers, the latter enter Russia on student visas under the guise of enrolling in universities, the GRC said.

They are then subcontracted to Russian employers, with brokers receiving a commission of up to 150,000 rubles ($1,860) for each, the statement added.

RCMP investigators posed as potential employers and discovered that the workers had been hired at production sites, including a military rations factory.

Workers are forced to stay on the job under duress and under threat of reprisals against them and their families.

One advertisement assured potential employers that workers would not “run away,” the report said. Workers work 12 hours a day with two days off each month, he adds, citing such advertisements.

After North Korea’s sixth and final nuclear test in 2017, a UN Security Council resolution broadly banned the hiring of its workers abroad and mandated their return home.

Russia and China, two permanent members of the Security Council that voted in favor of the ban, have since been accused by South Korea and the West of failing to comply with the resolutions.

Such measures, dating back to 2006, barred the flow of goods, energy, weapons and workers with North Korea.

In previous years, Russia employed North Korean workers in its Far East, while many North Koreans working in restaurants in China sent wages home that were returned to the national treasury, rights groups said.

North Korea is directly involved in running the network supplying workers to Russia, with officials from its embassy in Moscow identified as inspecting construction sites for potential jobs, according to the GRC report.

“These workers are not cheap, yet little, if any, of the money paid for their work reaches them,” said RCMP lead investigator Dylan Carter.

“Instead, it is lining the pockets of the DPRK state,” he added, referring to North Korea by a shortened version of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.