North Korean workers treated as 'slaves' at Russian drone factory

As many as 12,000 North Koreans working at a Russian drone factory are victims of "gross human rights abuses and human trafficking," according to a new report.

The figures were part of a joint report published on October 14 by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Dallas-based George W. Bush Institute. It analyzes how Russia, North Korea, China and Iran are involved in expanding unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production at the Yelabuga plant in Tatarstan, and what each country stands to gain.

While Moscow gets access to more than 5,500 drones a month for its war against Ukraine, China benefits from being the main supplier of dual-use components, including batteries, internal electronics, engines and navigation systems.

Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed drones, which has helped Moscow produce upgraded domestic variants, known as Geran.

Meanwhile, North Korea is earning money by retaining as much as 90% of the wages of the laborers, the report stated.

"The geographical locations of these four countries… means that any kind of international interdiction is impossible," Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, told DW.

Russia and North Korea defy UN resolutions

The joint report says Russia and North Korea are defying United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397, of December 2017, which requires any UN member state to send North Korean workers home within two years.

"The North Korean regime… is selling the labor of its citizens under a state-to-state arrangement, controlling whether they may leave and collecting most of their wages," it said. This, according to the report, "is the definition of forced labor."

Song Young-Chae, a Seoul-based academic and human rights activist with the Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, says Pyongyang is "effectively conducting slavery of its own people and for its own profit."

"This is just a terrible situation, and we know that it is not happening only at Yelabuga," he told DW. "We know there are construction workers in the occupied Ukrainian territories, North Koreans in lumber camps and, of course, tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent to fight — and die — on the front lines in Ukraine," Song added.

"Life in North Korea is not easy, but these people are being sent to Russia as slaves, with no freedom, and they are only allowed to keep a fraction of the money they earn," he said.

The challenge, he admits, is to find a way to halt this "trade in humanity."

How much can realistically be done?

"These countries share a border, so it is easy to transport workers, and no other agency can intervene," Song said. "Russia and China are both permanent members of the UN Security Council but are ignoring its resolutions on this issue. There is very little that can be done."

Song's rights organization is attempting to highlight the plight of North Korean workers and to create a "coalition of like-minded nations and agencies" to protect laborers — although he admits to being "pessimistic."

Pinkston shares those concerns, as well as fears over the emergence of a powerful bloc that appears to be "ripping up the post-World War II order on the rule of law and human rights" and is intent on taking a confrontational approach to other nations.

The weapons being manufactured at Yelabuga will assist in achieving those aims, he said.

"UN Security Council resolutions on North Korean workers, on weapons proliferation, on the sale of dual-use technologies are all being ignored, so I think we can say that the UN's sanctions regime is pretty much dead," Pinkston added.

North Korea developing its drone capabilities

It is clear that both Russia and Ukraine have gained important insights into the modern battlefield through their ongoing conflict, Pinkston said, with the emergence of drone technology arguably one of the most critical advances.

"And like everyone else, North Korea has been watching closely, 'learning-by-doing' and innovating its own drone capabilities," Pinkston said, adding that there are "serious implications" for the South Korean military as it also attempts to keep up its defensive capabilities against a new generation of drones in the North.

To curb the deployment of North Korean laborers to Russia and the proliferation of weapons, the joint report calls on the US State Department to work with other countries to disrupt human trafficking networks and sanction those responsible.

It also urges the UN to work multilaterally to investigate the Yelabuga complex and to catalogue the abuses that have taken place. Moreover, it demands accountability for those who have carried out abuses and for victims to be protected.

The report adds that foreign companies that are operating as part of the Yelabuga special economic zone — there are "several" European companies and at least one US firm with a presence at the site — should be pressured to leave.