North Koreans recruited into forced labour in Russia, report says

A Global Rights Compliance investigation says a broker network brings North Koreans to Russia using sham student enrolments to evade UN sanctions and labour laws. The KNDR.su platform, operated by Russian businessman Vladimir Sokolov, markets workers to employers in agriculture, construction, industry and IT, charging 100,000 to 150,000 roubles per placement. Operations director Ruslan Zhukov reportedly told investigators that workers were enrolled in colleges they did not attend and had to work 12 hours a day, six days a week. A 2017 UN Security Council resolution bans member states from hosting North Korean workers, yet the report estimates that 35,600 to 101,280 were working overseas in 2025.