The "Multilateral Sanction Monitoring Team" composed of 11 countries including the United States, Japan, and South Korea issued a report on the 16th, stating that North Korea circumvented United Nations sanctions by exporting labor and earned foreign currency for the development of nuclear weapons and missile programs. There are currently as many as 100,000 expatriate workers around the world, most of them in China and Russia, and some of them are producing military drones in Russia.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency and The Korea Herald reported that this latest report pointed out that the United Nations Security Council resolution requires United Nations member states to repatriate North Korean workers by the end of 2019 at the latest. However, North Korea continues to send workers to many countries, with estimates ranging from 35,600 to as many as 101,280.
The report said, "Despite the 2019 repatriation deadline set by Security Council Resolution 2397, at least 17 countries are suspected of continuing to retain (North Korean) workers, generating between US$450 million and US$800 million (approximately NT$14.3 billion to NT$25.4 billion) in foreign exchange earnings last year to fund North Korea's illegal nuclear weapons and missile programs."
According to the report, China is the largest importer of North Korean workers, with an estimated 20,000 to 70,000 people currently concentrated in border provinces working in textiles, aquatic products, electronics and information industries. By the end of last year, there were 15,000 to 30,000 North Korean foreign workers in Russia, some of whom were involved in the production of Russian military drones. The average annual salary of each North Korean worker in Russia is about US$7,500. Depending on the industry, his monthly salary may be five times higher than that of North Korean workers in China.
The report pointed out that an estimated 80% to 90% of the income earned by these North Korean foreign workers in foreign countries was confiscated by the North Korean government. In some cases, the confiscated amount even exceeded the actual income of the workers, leaving them heavily in debt. North Korea usually sends these workers under the name of student, training or technology exchange programs; 98% of visas Russia issued to North Koreans in 2025 were student visas.
Yonhap News Agency reported that as North Korea and Russia continue to strengthen cooperation, the number of North Korean workers is expected to further increase. Russia is facing a labor shortage due to the war between Ukraine and Russia. Recently, North Korean workers have been sent to reconstruction work sites in the Russian-Ukrainian border areas.
The members of the multinational sanctions monitoring group issued a joint statement condemning North Korea's use of overseas labor wages for illegal nuclear weapons and missile development programs, and urged all United Nations member states to pay more attention to this matter and hold them accountable. They also called on the United Nations Security Council to resume the expert panel of the North Korea Sanctions Committee.
