North Koreans being recruited into forced labour in Russia, report says

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that a months-long investigation by Global Rights Compliance found a broker network recruiting North Korean workers into Russia through bogus student enrolments and visas. The report says the arrangement is designed to evade UN sanctions and Russian labour rules, while channelling money back to Pyongyang and supporting sectors tied to Russia’s economy and, in some cases, its war effort in Ukraine.

According to the report, the network is operated by Russian businessman Vladimir Sokolov through the labour-brokering platform KNDR.su. It allegedly places North Koreans with employers in agriculture, construction, industry and IT, and charges Russian clients a commission for each placement. In conversations with investigators posing as prospective employers, Sokolov’s operations director, Ruslan Zhukov, reportedly said workers were enrolled in colleges they did not attend to avoid labour law.

The report also says the workers were expected to work long hours, including 12-hour days, six days a week. Global Rights Compliance said the system fits into wider sanctions concerns: a UN Security Council resolution bars member states from hosting North Korean workers, yet Russia issued more than 36,000 visas to North Koreans in 2025, mostly for educational purposes, the article says.

The findings come amid closer North Korea-Russia ties since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, including a mutual defence treaty signed in 2024. Al Jazeera noted that Sokolov and Zhukov did not respond to requests for comment, while Zhukov separately denied the allegations.