Rights group says Russian brokers, backed by Pyongyang, place North Korean workers in factories

Mixed · 2The Hague-based rights group Global Rights Compliance (GRC) said in a report that a Russian network of brokers, sponsored by Pyongyang, has taken North Koreans to work in Russia in exploitative conditions and in violation of UN sanctions. 1 2 Mixed · 2GRC said it spent nine months investigating a labour-brokering network run by a Russian businessman, with members posing undercover as prospective employers; it also cited open-source information and facial recognition technology used to identify North Korean officials. 2 1 Left · 1ABC News names the businessman as Moscow-based Vladimir Sokolov, whose linked website advertises "Industrial internships for students from the DPRK [North Korea] in Russia"; GRC says his network places groups of at least 50 workers at companies. 2

Mixed · 2According to GRC, workers enter Russia on student visas to avoid UN sanctions, are enrolled at colleges they do not attend, and are contracted out to employers, with brokers receiving a commission of up to 150,000 roubles per worker (CNA gives US$1,860; ABC gives a range of 100,000 to 150,000 roubles). 1 2 Left · 1ABC notes that a 2020 change in Russian migration law lets foreign students work while studying, which the report says avoids work authorisations prohibited under UN sanctions and places workers outside Russian labour law protections. 2 Mixed · 2The report says workers are held to the job by coercion and threats against them and their families, and cites advertisements describing 12-hour days; CNA reports two days off a month, while ABC reports GRC's finding of up to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week. 1 2

Mixed · 2GRC says North Korea takes most of the wages; ABC reports an allegation that up to 90 per cent of overseas workers' wages are forfeited to the state and used to fund its ballistic missile programme. 1 2 Mixed · 2GRC says North Korea is directly involved, with officials from its Moscow embassy inspecting work sites; ABC adds that Russian companies must receive an official audit visit from North Korean officials before workers are sent. 1 2 Mixed · 2The investigators say workers were found at production sites linked to the war effort, including a military rations factory; GRC lead investigator Dylan Carter (spelled Dyland in CNA) told ABC photos came from a dog food line in the same building as ration packaging, and that workers were also detected at an aluminium plant with contracts with major defence suppliers. 1 2

Mixed · 2GRC legal adviser Elise Lauriot Prevost described a "dangerous convergence between two states' military ambitions", while Carter said little of the money paid for the labour reaches the workers and ABC quotes him calling the normalisation of "slave labour conditions" in Russia shocking. 1 2 Mixed · 2Russia's foreign ministry and the North Korean embassy in Moscow did not respond to CNA's requests for comment. GRC said one of two Russians it identified as key figures replied, denying the accusation, and ABC reports that Sokolov did not respond but another businessman associated with the network said the North Koreans were students on "practical training" with "academic scholarships", calling the allegations "unsubstantiated". 1 2 Left · 1ABC reports that the EU Council added Sokolov to its North Korea sanctions list just over two weeks earlier, imposing an asset freeze and travel ban for allegedly promoting and facilitating commercial and industrial cooperation projects with North Korea. 2

Centre · 1The context is deepening Russia-North Korea ties: a 2023 leaders' summit, a 2024 partnership treaty with a mutual defence pact, and, per South Korea's intelligence agency, more than 10,000 North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine since 2024. A 2017 UN Security Council resolution banned hiring North Korean workers abroad, and Russia and China, which voted for it, have been accused of non-compliance. 1 Left · 1ABC adds that a multilateral sanctions monitoring team recently estimated overseas North Korean workers raised US$450 million to US$800 million last year and that there may be 35,000 to 101,000 abroad, mainly in China and Russia; it says North Korea and Russia have both denied wrongdoing despite several reports documenting it. 2