North Korean Workers Trapped in Russian Factory Network, New Investigation Finds
A Russian brokerage network is placing North Korean workers in factories through a system of long shifts, confiscated pay and threats against their families, according to a new investigation published Thursday.
The Hague-based legal foundation Global Rights Compliance says North Korean officials support the network and inspect prospective worksites. Its investigators identified online advertisements offering teams of 50 to 100 workers and posed undercover as prospective employers. The inquiry found placements at production sites including a military-rations factory and a pet-food plant near Moscow, findings reported by Reuters and the Financial Times.
The investigation describes workers entering Russia on student visas before brokers contract them to employers. Companies may pay commissions of up to 150,000 rubles—about $1,860—for each worker. Advertisements cited by investigators promised 12-hour workdays, only two days off each month and employees who would not “run away.”
That language exposes the workers’ real position. They cross a border labeled as students, then enter workplaces where their passports, wages and movement can be controlled. The report says resistance can bring retaliation against workers and relatives still in North Korea. The laborer carries the risk; brokers, employers and state institutions divide the money.
Global Rights Compliance traced the operation to KNDR.su, a Russian recruitment platform, and businesses associated with Moscow entrepreneur Vladimir Sokolov. The European Union sanctioned Sokolov and his Black Horse group on October 12, alleging that they facilitated industrial cooperation with North Korea in violation of United Nations restrictions.
The investigation did not go unanswered. One Russian operator contacted by researchers denied evading sanctions and said the placements complied with Russian law, according to the Financial Times. Russia’s Foreign Ministry and North Korea’s embassy in Moscow did not respond to Reuters. Those gaps matter: the report presents documentary and undercover evidence, but governments and companies accused of operating the system have not publicly supplied a full account.
The scale extends beyond one broker. A multilateral sanctions-monitoring report released in September estimated that 15,000 to 30,000 North Korean citizens were working in Russia by the end of 2025. It said many entered through student-visa arrangements and that Pyongyang could confiscate 80% to 90% of their earnings. The new investigation adds names, advertisements and contracting practices to that broader picture.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397, adopted in 2017 with Russian and Chinese support, prohibited countries from employing North Korean income-earning workers and set a 2019 deadline for their repatriation. The resolution aimed to cut revenue available to North Korea’s weapons programs. Yet sanctions enforcement has done little to guarantee labor rights for the people inside the system.
That is the central contradiction. Governments describe the workers as sanctions violations or sources of state revenue. Employers treat them as disciplined labor units. The workers themselves disappear behind both descriptions, even as they build, sew, package food and keep factories running.
Economic pressure on Russia and North Korea has tightened their partnership, but geopolitics cannot excuse coercion. Nor should enforcement simply strand workers, erase their wages or expose their families to punishment. Any credible response must protect the people being exploited: independent access to worksites, possession of identity documents, direct payment of wages, freedom to leave and safe channels for workers seeking help.
The latest findings are not merely another sanctions dispute. They describe a labor market organized around captive people. The brokers sell obedience. The factories buy it. The workers pay the price.
Comments