Report details 25,000 North Koreans building drones in Russian factories
An 11-nation monitoring team reported that North Korea sent thousands of workers on student visas to assembly plants in Tatarstan, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for Pyongyang's weapons programs.
Drone assembly in Tatarstan
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team released a report detailing how North Korea dispatches thousands of forced laborers to Russian military factories. Up to 25,000 North Korean citizens work in the Russian drone manufacturing sector, including facilities producing Geran-2 attack drones in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan. North Korean personnel enter Russia using student exchange visas to circumvent international trade and labor restrictions. These laborers endure shifts lasting 12 to 18 hours per day, frequently working seven days a week under constant government surveillance. North Korean authorities restrict worker movements and prohibit contact with outsiders to prevent escapes from industrial sites.
Foreign earnings and weapons funding
The overseas labor system provides substantial foreign currency directly to the government in Pyongyang. The monitoring group found that these operations generated between $450 million and $800 million for North Korea in 2025.
In 2025, North Korean overseas labourers unlawfully generated between $450m and $800m in total for the DPRK government. Estimates reflect a majority of these funds were earned by overseas North Korean IT workers.
In Russia, North Korean laborers receive an average of $7,500 annually, an amount roughly five times higher than wages for equivalent work in China. The Kim Jong Un regime seizes between 80% and 90% of worker earnings to finance state priorities, including ballistic missile development and nuclear weapons programs. In several cases documented by monitors, state confiscation amounts exceeded the wages earned, placing workers into debt to the North Korean government.
Global labor networks and sanctions
The monitoring coalition identified between 35,600 and 101,280 North Korean laborers working across at least 17 countries, with 38 countries having hosted North Korean workers since 2019. China remains the largest host country, employing between 20,000 to 70,000 North Koreans in border regions, textile manufacturing, agriculture, and commercial fishing fleets. Russia is the second-largest employer, with 15,000 to 30,000 North Korean workers active in forestry, construction, and defense manufacturing. In broader regional allocations, Asian deployments focus on information technology, manufacturing, and construction, while African deployments consist primarily of medical and construction workers.
- UN Security Council bans member states from hosting North Korean workers
- UN deadline passes requiring repatriation of all overseas North Korean laborers
- Eleven nations form Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team after Russian UN veto
- Russia completes Alabuga housing complex and expands North Korean workforce
- Monitoring coalition publishes report documenting 25,000 North Koreans in Russian drone plants
Institutional monitoring and battlefield ties
These deployments breach a 2017 United Nations Security Council resolution that required all member states to repatriate North Korean workers by late 2019. The 11-member Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, which includes the United States, Germany, and South Korea, was established in October 2024 after Russia vetoed the mandate renewal of the UN panel of experts. The labor deployments parallel direct military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang. In late 2024, North Korea sent up to 15,000 troops to the Kursk region to counter Ukrainian forces, where up to 3,000 North Korean soldiers died. In 2025, Russia completed a residential complex in the Alabuga zone to house incoming foreign workers.
