North Korean forced labourers are sold to Russian war factories with a promise they 'won't run away', report says
The New Yalu River Bridge crossing between North Korea and China, as the US Treasury sanctions North Koreans and Russians accused of funnelling fraudulent IT workers' wages back to Pyongyang to fund weapons programmes.
A nine-month undercover investigation by the Hague-based human rights group Global Rights Compliance exposed North Korean workers being funnelled into Russian factories under forced labour conditions, with Moscow-based businessman Vladimir Sokolov running the broker network. Workers use student visas to circumvent UN sanctions on entry to Russia, then work 12-hour shifts six to seven days a week, handing over most of their wages to fund Pyongyang's ballistic missile programme. Brokers pocket commissions of up to 150,000 roubles per worker placed, and one advertisement openly guaranteed prospective employers that the workers would not 'run away'.
Some workers are deployed at facilities directly supplying Russia's war effort, including a military rations factory whose goods reach front lines in Ukraine.
GRC investigator Dylan Carter described North Korean workers as 'commodities', saying he found the normalisation of slave labour conditions in Russia 'shocking'.
The findings compound sanctions imposed Wednesday by the US Treasury on 10 individuals and a Russia-based North Korean-controlled firm for a separate IT fraud scheme funnelling cash to Pyongyang's weapons programmes.
