Today, international human rights foundation Global Rights Compliance has released a new report revealing first-hand testimonies from North Koreans in Russia, exploited as part of a programme that sees 100,000-workers sent overseas in a state-sponsored labour programme operating across 40 countries.
Read the full report here.
Highlights:
- Report reveals testimonies of North Koreans exploited in state-sponsored labour programme
- Report features evidence from North Koreans working on construction sites in Russia
- Workers forced to meet an escalating mandatory monthly quota to North Korea
- Forced to work up to 16 hours per day, with some working 364 days in a year on 10 USD per month
- Workers living in unheated, overcrowded containers infested with cockroaches
- Russia in need of workforce to boost economy struggling with demands of the war in Ukraine
- Russian companies violating UN sanctions by hiring North Korean workers
- Oppressive programme operates across 40 countries
- Escalating global programme generates $500 million dollars annually for North Korea
Based on testimonies provided by 21 North Koreans currently working on construction sites across three Russian cities, the report has identified that all eleven of the International Labour Organisation’s warning signs of forced labour were present across the victim statements, revealing an oppressive pattern of control, abuse and coercion.
Global Rights Compliance’s DPRK team is dedicated to investigating and uncovering the structures of state-sponsored forced labour affecting North Korea nationals. The team is involved in enhancing the legal capacity of North Korean civil society organisations, facilitating accountability submissions and supporting United Nations initiatives for addressing human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The report finds that North Korean workers in Russia are forced to meet a mandatory monthly quota called ‘Gukga gyehoekbun’, made to the North Korean state “no matter what… dead or alive” as one testimony described it. Many workers reported being given no information about the quota system before their departure to Russia.
The state quota is actively rising, as worker testimonies show the quotas increasing from $600 to $700 per month, with some already reporting to pay $850 monthly. Any shortfall of the quota is carried forward, binding workers into a cycle of debt bondage, with testimonies showing some workers finish a full year’s labour in debt.
Workers who fail to meet state-mandated quotas are barred from future overseas postings and must pay bribes at three times the previous rate to secure another assignment. Former managers of labour sites face even harsher consequences, with returning workers confronting them at their homes to demand unpaid wages, triggering disputes that frequently escalate into violent altercations and the forcible seizure of personal property.
To meet the escalating quota, the report reveals workers must consistently work up to 16 hours per day, starting at 7:00am or 8:00am in the morning and continuing as late as midnight. The testimonies show that rests days are virtually non-existent, with most people forced to work every day of the month and some working 364 days in a year on 10 USD per month.
The evidence shows that work continues regardless of extreme weather conditions, forcing the North Korean workers to labour through harsh Russian winters with no protective equipment and no option to stop. Injuries and illness are also ignored, not treated as medical issues but as problems obstructing work, with one worker testifying that they “lead lives worse than cattle”.
Side jobs are illegal, invisible and unprotected, but the new report shows workers are driven to take them in often exploitative and dangerous situations, just to meet the quota and survive the month.
The report exposes alarming living conditions for the North Korean workers, inhabiting unheated, overcrowded ‘containers’ infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, while limited to one or two showers across a year. Those employed directly by companies were found to live in these ‘containers’ on the construction site, making it nearly impossible to leave freely.
Physical violence was identified across several testimonies, even in circumstances of illness, or perceived insubordination, with one man reported to be beaten so badly he was unable to work for two weeks. However, the combination of poor working conditions with excessively long hours are revealed to form a structural violence so effective that physical violence is not the primary method of control.
Surveillance onsite is described to be constant, while methods of collective punishment ensures that individual workers spy on one another.
Evidence of document retention has been detailed, one of the clearest indicators of forced labour globally. Upon arrival to Russia, passports are immediately confiscated and retained by North Korean security officials. At best, workers are issued photocopies, reinforcing their legal identity and freedom of movement belongs to the state.
The report finds that workers are selected not for their capacity to provide labour, but for the likelihood of obedience, prioritising those with spouses, children or elderly parents to bear the consequences for disobedience.
The North Korean workers have been sent to Russia to boost its economy which is struggling to cope with the demands of the war in Ukraine. A significant proportion of the workers interviewed were unaware of which Russian company they were working for, in a deliberate effort to evade the UN sanctions the companies are violating by employing North Korean workers.
Evidence compiled in the report shows the programme forms a central pillar of North Korea’s strategy, with DPRK overseas workers generating $500 million dollars annually by working across multiple sectors including sewing, construction, medicine, information technology and food service.
Over 100,000 of North Korean nationals are working under similar brutal conditions across 40 other countries, with smaller numbers deployed elsewhere through opaque contracting and reclassification schemes.3
The report provides recommendations for the international community, civil society organisations, Russia and South Korea, including approaches to improve worker conditions, boost accountability efforts and increase independent oversight of worksites.
Lara Strangways, Head of Business and Human Rights at Global Rights Compliance said:
“The relative ease with which DPRK workers continue to be transferred into exploitative overseas labour arrangements should be deeply alarming. It reveals not only the durability of the DPRK’s overseas labour model, but also the weakness of current enforcement and accountability measures. What is needed is targeted enforcement: rigorous investigation of recruiters, employers and state facilitators, scrutiny of payment flows, and coordinated action by authorities to identify these schemes for what they are – a system of state-sponsored forced labour.”
Yeji Kim, DPRK Advisor of Global Rights Compliance, said:
“Abolition of state-sponsored forced labour remains the ultimate goal, but it cannot be the only answer when workers need protection today. The priority is immediate, tangible relief: enforcing basic labour standards, enabling independent monitoring, and building safe exit pathways that do not punish those who flee.”
“Every survivor we interviewed showed remarkable resourcefulness at every stage: working personal networks and trading favours just to secure a posting, bartering for side jobs abroad, smuggling phones, sharing forbidden information. The international community must hold both truths at once: these workers show extraordinary resilience, but agency exercised under systemic coercion is not consent. Resilience must never be mistaken for voluntariness. These workers make the best of an impossible situation, and that is precisely what makes the system so exploitative.”
Read the full report here.
For additional comments, please contact press@grcompliance.org