Video shows North Korean laborers working in Russia in violation of UN sanctions

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Video shows North Korean laborers working in Russia in violation of UN sanctions

Published: 15 Apr. 2025, 09:54

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

North Korean workers are seen working at a construction site near Pyongyang in this photo released by state-run media Rodong Sinmun on April 8. [NEWS1]

Vladivostok city authorities in Russia released rare footage of North Korean laborers at a local construction site, showing actions that appears to violate United Nations sanctions, according to a report published Monday by NK News, a U.S.-based outlet specializing in North Korean affairs.

The video, taken earlier this month during a visit to a construction project managed by Russian real estate developer Samolet, was uploaded by the Vladivostok Municipal Coordination Center. It depicts workers who appear to be North Korean speaking in a distinctive North Korean accent and using vocabulary associated with the North.

In North Korea, dog meat is known as “sweet meat” and is considered a national food and intangible cultural heritage. In South Korea, a law was passed last year banning the production and sale of dog meat starting in 2027.

In the video, city officials say that the North Koreans “legally work here,” attempting to refute reports that the North Koreans had mistreated or consumed dogs. The Vladivostok officials went on to say that the workers were using the dogs as guard dogs.

An inspection was carried out after citizens and animal rights activists raised concerns about missing or abused dogs near the Samolet construction site. They claimed that North Korean workers were involved in the dogs' disappearances.

Though Vladivostok city officials did not refer to the workers specifically as North Koreans in the video but simply as “Koreans,” the workers' North Korean origins were evident. South Koreans rarely engage in construction labor in Russia, while Pyongyang is known to dispatch workers abroad to earn foreign currency.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the training base of the Korean People's Army Special Operations Forces to guide comprehensive training on April 6. [NEWS1]

NK News claimed that the video is “clear evidence” that Russia is employing North Korean workers for real estate projects in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2397. The resolution, adopted in 2017, prohibits North Korean workers from earning income abroad and orders all member states to repatriate North Korean workers by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korea's labor network has spread throughout Russia.

The KCNA reported Thursday that eight high-ranking officials from a Russian construction company sent flower baskets to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to commemorate the 113th birthday of Kim Il Sung, demonstrating close personal relations with the leader.

The companies that sent the flower baskets are headquartered in Khabarovsk, Ussuriisk, Buryatia, Tatarstan, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the UN’s ban on hiring North Korean workers, saying he supports the idea of using North Korean workers within the country.

In addition, a local official in Siberia said that about 2,000 North Korean workers are expected to arrive in the Novosibirsk region amid a labor shortage caused by the war in Ukraine, according to NK News.

North Korea has previously stated that it can send workers to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, which was established by separatist forces in Ukraine. The separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic also considered hiring North Korean workers to rebuild its war-torn infrastructure.

Last year, Pyongyang sent its citizens to Russia on a record-breaking scale, most of them construction workers disguised as “students,” according to NK News.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]