Lara Strangways, Head of Business and Human Rights at Global Rights Compliance (GRC), provided expert commentary to ABC News and The Independent following the release of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team’s (MSMT) new report on the DPRK’s overseas labour programme.
Both outlets reported on the continued deployment and exploitation of North Korean workers abroad, with Lara highlighting how the MSMT’s findings reinforce GRC’s own investigations into the DPRK’s state-sponsored forced labour programme.
MSMT’s alarming report confirms what GRC’s investigations have exposed – North Korean workers are being channelled through Russian labour brokers into a system built on debt bondage, confiscated documents and constant surveillance, generating hard currency for Pyongyang,” Lara noted.
The findings add to growing evidence of the scale and systematic nature of the DPRK’s overseas labour programme and the role played by intermediaries and companies connected to these arrangements.
Lara stressed that urgent action is needed to address the expanding use of state-sponsored forced labour and to identify and sanction those facilitating and profiting from the exploitation.
🔗 Read the full coverage by ABC News and The Independent here:
ABC News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-17/north-korean-overseas-workers-financing-nukes/107165468
The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/east-asia/north-korea-russia-china-nuclear-weapons-forced-labour-b3051822.html