North Korean workers at a construction site in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 6 October 2017. Photo: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
North Korea is sending its citizens to work in Russia “like slaves” in “abysmal” conditions to fill a huge labour shortage caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a BBC report published on Tuesday.
Six North Koreans who managed to escape from Russia spoke to the BBC about work conditions in Russia. One of them, Jin, whose name has been changed for safety reasons, said that he flew to the Far East of Russia and was then taken by a North Korean secret service agent who warned him not to speak to anyone or look at anything while being escorted to the construction site where he would be working.
All six North Koreans said that they were forced to work on a construction site building apartment buildings from 6am to 2am and were only given two days off a year, with other workers on the site referring to them as “slaves”. At night, despite workers carrying on with construction work, the lights were turned off, leaving workers to carry on without safety equipment. Workers were then forced to sleep in either dirty overcrowded cargo containers infested with bugs or on the floor in unfinished high-rise buildings which did not have doors.
Many North Koreans travel to Russia in the hope of earning enough money to buy a house or open their own business back home. However, according to the BBC, most of this income is taken as “loyalty fees” by the North Korean state and workers are then only paid $100-200 per month, which is given to them once they return to North Korea.
Many workers who emigrated to Russia then found it difficult to return home. Tae reported that he felt “ashamed” when he learned that he received five times less than a worker located in Central Asia.
One worker said that he ran away when he was told that he may not receive his money because North Korea needed it more.
To prevent future escapes, North Korean authorities are increasing ideology training and reducing opportunities to leave the sites, according to professor Kang Dong Wan, who has travelled to Russia several times to interview North Korean workers.
South Korean intelligence claim that more than 10,000 North Koreans flew to Russia in 2024 and estimated that that number could reach 50,000 in 2025, despite a 2019 UN Security Council resolution prohibiting the hiring of North Korean workers.
In April, the DPRK and Russia officially acknowledged the participation of the North Korean military in the war in Ukraine for the first time, with both Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un claiming that North Koreans helped to bring the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, back under Russian control.
South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have repeatedly documented the involvement of over 10,000 North Korean troops in battle against Ukrainian soldiers, with some 600 estimated to have been killed.
