According to a report by the UN Security Council’s Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), between 15,000 and 30,000 North Korean workers were present in Russia at the end of 2025.
Up to 1,000 of them were employed at strategically important facilities, including defence plants, steelworks and shipbuilding capacities.
The Ukrainian outlet “Ukrainska Pravda” also confirmed that up to 25,000 North Korean citizens are working on drone production in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, where Russian versions of Iran’s Shahed drone are assembled.
Radio Liberty cites similar data, noting that North Koreans are registered as “students” in order to bypass UN sanctions that prohibit the use of DPRK labour abroad.
In 2025 Russia issued more than 36,400 visas to North Korean citizens, of which 35,800 were student visas.
Where North Koreans work
Workers from North Korea are now reportedly spread across Russia, from traditional employment regions in the Far East (Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Sakhalin) to newer destinations such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Irkutsk.
Tatarstan has become the main centre of their employment, in particular the Alabuga special economic zone, which features in most investigations as a key hub for assembling strike drones.
It is here, according to Current Time and Radio Liberty, that North Korean workers staff assembly lines producing drones used by Russia to attack Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Sanctions evasion scheme
Although UN Security Council sanctions have banned the export of North Korean labour since 2017, Moscow and Pyongyang have built an entire ecosystem for circumventing these restrictions, the MSMT report notes.
North Koreans are being registered en masse on student and tourist visas, which allows their real status to be concealed and their work at Russian companies to be legalised.
According to reports, Russian legislation was amended to create legal loopholes that enabled “students” to receive income officially.
The report also describes cases in which Russian universities were bribed to arrange fictitious study programmes, as well as the role of intermediaries from third countries, including Belarus, which help organise entry and distribute the workforce.
This points to a systemic scheme that allows Pyongyang to earn millions of dollars and enables Russia to plug labour shortages in strategic industries.
Control and confiscated wages
According to MSMT, the working conditions of North Korean labourers in Russia remain extremely harsh and are fully controlled by the Pyongyang authorities.
The average annual income of such workers is around $7,500 (€6,593), but almost all of this is seized by Pyongyang.
The report notes that in 2025 alone North Korea received up to 800 million dollars from the labour of its citizens abroad. These funds, the report stresses, are channelled into financing the country’s nuclear and missile programme.
The workers in effect live under constant surveillance by DPRK security services: their movements are strictly restricted, contact with Russian citizens is forbidden, and they are housed in closed dormitories to which outsiders have no access.
Human-rights activists describe these conditions as “slavery”, citing the absence of freedom, isolation and the people’s complete dependence on the regime. These findings are reported (source in Russian) by “Radio Liberty” (RFE/RL) and “Current Time”, which underline the systematic exploitation of North Korean citizens at Russian enterprises.
Juche ideology at the service of Moscow’s imperial ambitions
In October 2024, intelligence services in South Korea, the United States and Ukraine began reporting that thousands of Pyongyang’s soldiers were being sent to Russia.
At the BRICS summit that same month, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the presence of North Koreans, but did not specify the purpose of their deployment.
Russian military officials later confirmed that North Koreans were being used to help counter Ukraine’s successful incursion into the Kursk region, which began in August 2024.
Kim’s regime subsequently established large-scale deliveries of arms and ammunition to Russia: artillery shells, ballistic missiles, small arms and artillery systems, and also sent military instructors.
The money Pyongyang receives is spent on purchasing more powerful weapons, a massive housing and industrial construction programme and, experts believe, on developing its nuclear programme, where Moscow may also be providing expert advice.
Why is Russia using North Korean labour?
Russia is facing an acute labour shortage because of its war against Ukraine and mobilisation.
North Koreans have become one means of filling staff gaps at defence-industry plants, especially in the drone sector, which requires large numbers of low-paid workers.
German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle notes that cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang intensified after Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia and agreements to expand military and industrial cooperation.
But the use of North Korean labour at Russian defence plants has sparked concern:
- The United States, South Korea and Japan see this as a violation of UN sanctions;
- human-rights organisations highlight the exploitation of people and the funding of North Korea’s nuclear programmes;
- experts warn that the cooperation boosts the military potential of both countries.
What this means for the war in Ukraine
Russia launches hundreds of drones against Ukrainian territory every day. Moscow is now banking on mass production of cheap UAVs that can operate in swarms and overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
The use of more powerful, faster jet-powered drones is also expanding, and countering them is particularly challenging.
The large-scale production of drones, in which North Korean workers are involved, directly increases the intensity of these attacks.