North Korean Workers in Russia Trapped in Systematic Forced Labor, Report Reveals

“Wake up before 6 a.m. to the Russian winter. Walk to the construction site as a group. Work from 7 a.m. until 10, 11 p.m., sometimes even midnight. Without breaks. There is no set end time. You finish when the target is met. Rain, snow, it does not matter. We worked with no gloves, no heating, no protective equipment. My hands cracked so badly I could not grip the tools. But you do not stop.”

This harrowing account comes from “RT,” a North Korean worker whose identity is being protected. He is one of an estimated 100,000 North Koreans sent overseas under the country’s state-sponsored labor program.

“I was told I could earn money,” RT told Fox News Digital. “That was all. Nobody mentioned a quota. Nobody told me that most of what I earn would be taken. I thought if I went to Russia and worked hard, I could save enough to build a better life for my family. When I arrived, I realized none of that was true. The money was not mine. It was never going to be mine.”

A comprehensive new investigation by Global Rights Compliance has documented extensive evidence of North Korean forced labor in Russia, revealing a system that violates United Nations sanctions while generating critical revenue for Pyongyang’s isolated regime.

The report compiles testimonies from North Korean workers across three Russian cities, documenting all eleven International Labour Organization indicators of forced labor: debt bondage, restriction of movement, withholding of wages, excessive overtime, physical violence, surveillance, deception, isolation, abuse of vulnerability and abusive working conditions.

According to Global Rights Compliance North Korea advisor Yeji Kim, workers are required to pay a mandatory monthly sum to the state, known as the “gukga gyehoekbun,” which must be paid “no matter what, dead or alive.”

The financial arrangement is particularly exploitative. A typical worker earns approximately $800 monthly for up to 420 hours of labor – far exceeding standard work hours. From this sum, between $600 and $850 is deducted for their quota, along with additional payments for travel debt and communal living expenses. Workers are left with just $10 per month on average.

“If workers fall short, the deficit carries forward, leaving some in debt for an entire year,” Kim explained. One worker described the quota as a “lump on his back” that dictated every aspect of his life abroad.

The control extends beyond financial extraction. Upon arrival in Russia, passports are immediately confiscated by North Korean security officials. Workers live in isolation, with movement heavily restricted.

“My passport was taken the day I arrived,” RT said. “I never held it again. I could not leave the worksite freely. The city was right there, beyond the fence, but we were sealed off from it. A few times a year, we were allowed out, but only in groups, heads counted, with a fixed time to return.”

Living conditions are described as inhumane. Workers report overcrowded containers infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, access to only one or two showers per year, and in some cases just a single day off annually. One worker told investigators they were forced to “lead lives worse than cattle.”

The financial significance of this labor export program to North Korea’s economy is substantial. “The U.N. Panel of Experts estimates approximately $500 million annually from the labor program alone,” Kim said. “For a country under the most comprehensive sanctions regime in U.N. history, that is a critical revenue stream. It sustains the political elite, funds internal patronage networks and underwrites military ambitions, including nuclear development.”

This forced labor system represents a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, which require member states to repatriate all North Korean workers. Russia’s continued employment of these workers constitutes a breach of international sanctions.

The findings come amid growing cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. North Korea is reported to have supplied weapons and troops worth as much as $14 billion to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, demonstrating the deepening relationship between the two sanctioned states.

The report’s authors emphasize that host countries like Russia play a critical enabling role by allowing this exploitative system to operate within their borders. Russian companies are employing North Korean workers while obscuring their identities, making it difficult for workers to even know who they are working for.

Physical abuse was reported in several cases, including one worker who was beaten so severely he could not work for two weeks. Surveillance is described as constant, with collective punishment used to force workers to monitor one another.

RT, who managed to escape the system, now feels compelled to speak out. “We are people just like you but working like a cow,” he said. “We have families. We left home because we wanted to give our children something better, and what we found was a system that took everything from us.”

He emphasized that thousands remain trapped in this system: “I want people to know that right now, today, there are men on construction sites in Russia working 16 hours a day, sleeping in containers, earning nothing, with no way to call home and no way to leave. Their names are not in any report. Nobody knows they are there. But they are there. And if I could say one thing to them, it would be — the world is starting to listen. Please hold on.”