Moscow has turned to North Korea for help amid a labor shortage, with thousands of workers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) sent to work in Russia in 2024.
South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), reported the news on February 9 and stated that this is in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang, according to Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency.
Newsweek has reached out to the North Korean embassy in London and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for comment via email.
North Korean construction workers in Pyongyang carry building materials on October 11, 2011.
North Korean construction workers in Pyongyang carry building materials on October 11, 2011.
David Guttenfelder/Associated Press
Why It Matters
North Korean workers help Moscow by freeing up “Russian civilian sector employees to work in the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) or fight in Ukraine,” according to think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The partnership between the two countries has strengthened recently with Moscow and Pyongyang ratifying their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty, which mandates that both will deploy all available resources to offer immediate military assistance if either nation is attacked.
What To Know
The NIS reported that North Korea sent thousands of workers to construction sites across Russia last year.
It is thought student visas have been used to facilitate this, with 13,221 North Koreans entering Russia last year, 7,887 of them stating that their visit was for educational purposes. The number of North Koreans who entered Russia in 2024 was 12 times higher than in 2023.
In a briefing in October 2024, the NIS reported that they believed North Korean workers in Russia were being paid a monthly stipend of approximately $800, according to the Korea Herald.
Russia voted in favor of Resolution 2397 in 2017 in response to North Korea’s testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.N. Security Council’s resolutions in response to Pyongyang’s weapons tests state that North Korea is barred from sending workers abroad, and overseas DPRK workers were meant to return to the country by 2019.
North Korea has been one of Russia’s strongest allies since the war with Ukraine began in February 2022, with the DPRK sending between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers to fight for Russia in October 2024.
North Korean troops were withdrawn from Russia’s Kursk region at the end of January after sustaining heavy casualties, according to unnamed Ukrainian and U.S. officials quoted by The New York Times. The withdrawal was short-lived, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that North Korean troops returned to the front lines in Kursk on February 7.
In another example of cooperation, Moscow and Pyongyang will jointly develop drones for mass production this year, according to the Japanese news outlet NHK World.
What People Are Saying
In a report on Russia’s offensive campaign, the ISW wrote: “Russia has been suffering from significant labor shortages in both its civilian and defense industrial sectors since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The arrival of several thousands of North Koreans to work in civilian sectors is marginal and will not significantly alleviate Russia’s labor shortages. Russia reportedly has an estimated labor shortage of 1.5 million workers as of December 2024, for example.”
As reported by the DPRK’s Korean State News Agency, during a speech at the North Korean Ministry of National Defense on February 9, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said: “It is the invariable stand of the DPRK government to oppose and reject any acts of denying the international justice and disturbing global peace and security, and our army and people will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia.”
Wi Sung-lac, a South Korean politician and former ambassador to Russia, told the Korea Herald: “I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labor shortages after many were drafted for the war.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how the U.N. will respond to Russia and North Korea’s violations of the security council’s resolutions and how the two countries will continue to strengthen their partnership as the war progresses.