North Korean Workers Supply Russian Factories Despite UN Sanctions

A Russian recruitment network linked to North Korea is sending workers to Russian factories under exploitative conditions, including facilities producing supplies used in Moscow's war against Ukraine, according to a report released Thursday by Global Rights Compliance (GRC). The Hague-based human rights group says the operation circumvents United Nations sanctions, generates revenue for Pyongyang, and relies on coercion to keep workers on the job.

GRC's investigation describes a system operated by a Russian businessman through an online platform, with North Korean officials allegedly helping arrange employment. The report says workers enter Russia on student visas under the pretense of attending colleges before brokers place them with Russian employers.

The brokers can receive commissions of up to 150,000 rubles ($1,860) for each worker, according to GRC. Investigators posing as prospective employers identified production sites that employed North Koreans, including a factory manufacturing military rations.

The report says workers face 12-hour workdays and receive only two days off per month. Employers are also offered assurances that workers will not leave their jobs, while threats against workers and their families are used to prevent them from escaping the arrangement.

GRC legal adviser Elise Lauriot Prevost said the investigation revealed a connection between North Korea's overseas labor system and Russia's wartime industrial needs.

"This investigation exposes a dangerous convergence between two states’ military ambitions," said Elise Lauriot Prevost, a legal adviser to GRC.

She said the arrangement combines North Korea's use of forced overseas labor to support its weapons program with Russia's demand for workers to sustain its war economy. The report identifies the labor network as part of a broader strengthening of military and political cooperation between the two countries.

GRC lead investigator Dylan Carter said workers receive little of the money generated by their employment.

"These workers do not come cheap, yet little, if any, of the money paid for their labor reaches them," said Dylan Carter, a lead investigator at GRC.

Carter said the earnings instead benefit North Korea's government.

"Instead, it lines the pockets of the DPRK state," he added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

GRC said its findings draw on publicly available information about the Russian operator, facial recognition technology used to identify North Korean officials, and evidence collected by investigators posing as prospective employers. The group said officials from North Korea's embassy in Moscow were identified as inspecting potential workplaces.

The organization contacted two Russians it identified as key figures in the network. According to the report, one responded and denied the allegations, while the report did not establish whether the other had replied.

Russia's Foreign Ministry and North Korea's Embassy in Moscow did not respond to requests for comment sent by email, according to the report's accompanying news coverage.

United Nations restrictions prohibit member states from hiring North Korean workers overseas. After North Korea conducted its sixth and most recent nuclear test in 2017, a UN Security Council resolution imposed a blanket ban on overseas employment for North Korean nationals and required workers already abroad to return home.

Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council that voted for the restrictions, have faced accusations from South Korea and Western governments of failing to comply with UN sanctions. The measures, introduced in stages since 2006, have targeted the flow of goods, energy, weapons, and labor connected to North Korea.

The reported labor operation comes amid closer military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. South Korea's intelligence agency has said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in the Ukraine war since 2024, while also supplying weapons to help replenish Moscow's military stockpiles.

North Korea and Russia pledged renewed cooperation at a summit between their leaders in 2023 and signed a partnership treaty the following year that included a mutual defense pact. Rights groups have previously reported that Russia employed North Korean laborers in its Far East, while North Koreans working in restaurants in China sent wages home that were channeled to the state treasury.