North Korean workers sold into Russia then stripped of wages, report finds

North Korea-Russia forced labour is funding missile program, report alleges In short: Russian brokers are advertising North Korean workers to companies as part of a forced labour program, a new report has alleged. It found those involved are working up to 12 hours a day, six to seven times a week, and forfeiting most of their income to the North Korea's authoritarian regime. The report found some North Korean workers were being sent to "facilities essential to Russia's war economy". North Korean workers are being advertised online as for sale to Russian businesses as part of a forced labour program, a new report has found. The workers' wages are being used to fund North Korea's ballistic missile program, and their labour is boosting the Kremlin's war economy, it alleges. International human rights group Global Rights Compliance (GRC) said it had members pose undercover as representatives of a prospective company as part of a nine-month investigation into a labour-brokering network run by a Russian businessman. It found the broker network charges a commission of between 100,000 and 150,000 roubles ($1,765 to $2,650) per North Korean worker it places with a company. The group alleges the North Koreans then work up to 12 hours a day, six to seven times a week, and forfeit most of their income to the authoritarian regime. It said the Russian brokers have "turned the supply of North Korean labour into an organised industry". "It's shocking to me, the normalisation of slave labour conditions in Russia," the report's lead investigator, Dylan Carter, told the ABC. He said North Korean workers were being treated as "commodities". "They are advertised for the fact that they can fulfil these gruelling shifts, that you can have complete control of these workers, that their documents are seized, that they can work in unsecure working conditions." It is the latest in a series of reports to investigate the use of labour from North Korea, in breach of a resolution from the United Nations Security Council, which requires member states to repatriate North Koreans earning money in their territory. The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, an international coalition set up to report on violations of UN sanctions against North Korea, recently found North Korean overseas workers raised between $US450 million ($633 million) and $US800 million last year for the authoritarian state's nuclear weapons program. It found there could be anywhere between 35,000 and 101,000 North Korean workers overseas, primarily in China and Russia. North Korea has denied providing forced labour, although organisations, including the United Nations, have documented it. Russia has also denied violating UN resolutions on using North Korean workers, despite several reports documenting it. North Korean 'students' sent to work in Russia The GRC report focuses on a brokering network allegedly run by Moscow-based businessman Vladimir Sokolov. A website it links to him advertises "Industrial internships for students from the DPRK [North Korea] in Russia". It found his brokering network places groups of at least 50 workers at companies and receives payments for each worker. Undercover GRC investigators were reportedly told by an operations manager working for Mr Sokolov that "North Korean workers enter Russia on student visas, are enrolled at colleges they never attend, and are placed within Russian companies". A change in Russian migration law in 2020 allows foreign students to work while studying in the country. "This arrangement avoids work authorisations prohibited under UN sanctions and places workers outside of the protections of Russian labour law," the report says. The investigation also found the Russian companies must have an official audit visit from North Korean officials before workers are sent there. "Taken together, the findings show that North Korean labour in Russia is the product of an organised system rather than informal, ad hoc, or isolated labour arrangements," the report found. The report said there were other brokers bringing in North Koreans, but that Mr Sokolov "distinguishes his scheme" by arguing it is "lawful because the 'students' are undertaking 'work training' as part of their education". The report authors said they approached Mr Sokolov for comment but did not receive a response. Another businessman associated with the network denied the North Koreans were workers, saying they were students doing "practical training at production sites" and the payments were "academic scholarships". He said there was no "forced labour network" and that the allegations were "unsubstantiated" and based on "speculation". Support for 'Russia's war economy' While the majority of North Korean overseas workers are believed to be in China, there has been a growing number going to Russia, as the two countries tighten ties. The GRC said "economic pressures and demands of [the] Ukraine war" are adding to Russia's need to boost its workforce, and its report found North Korean workers were "being used in facilities essential to Russia's war economy". Mr Carter said North Korean workers were detected at an aluminium manufacturing plant that had contracts with major defence suppliers. The GRC also sourced photos of workers at a food manufacturer that produces dry rations for Russian soldiers. Mr Carter said the photos were from a dog food line, but it was believed the North Koreans were also working packaging the military rations, which came out of the same building. "You can see evidence of those food rations strewn all over the battlefield in Ukraine as Russian soldiers eat these dry rations which were prepared at this factory,"he said. The workers are paid a proper wage, but it is alleged up to 90 per cent of overseas workers' wages are forfeited to the North Korean regime, helping to fund its ballistic missiles program. Mr Carter said when the workers arrived in Russia, they faced a "stark and depressing world" where they were monitored and controlled. "These are arrangements that benefit the North Korean and Russian states very heavily at the cost of North Korean civilians who ultimately pay the price for their labour," he said. EU-sanctioned Russian businessman named in report The Russian businessman investigated in the report, Mr Sokolov, has recently been sanctioned by the European Union. Just over two weeks ago, the Council of the EU added Mr Sokolov to a list of people and entities that are "responsible for supporting, promoting or facilitating activities" that contribute to North Korea's weapons programs and "violating and evading United Nations sanctions". The sanctions include an asset freeze and a ban on travelling to the European Union. He was one of three individuals and two entities added to the list, which now runs to more than 100, as part of a focus on activities "linked to the growing military and economic cooperation between the DPRK [North Korea] and Russia". The council has accused Mr Sokolov of "promoting and facilitating commercial and industrial cooperation projects" with North Korea. Tensions on the peninsula, and between South Korea and Ukraine The report's revelations come at a time of heightened tension between North and South Korea, and amid a fraying relationship between Seoul and Ukraine. North Korea positioned artillery along the demilitarised zone this week, with barrels pointed towards South Korea. It comes after a mine blast in the area injured three South Korean soldiers. Seoul has called for an apology from Pyongyang, while the latter claimed the incident was fabricated. As Russia and North Korea continue to tighten ties, Ukraine has been warning that more troops from the hermit kingdom could be sent to join the war and has called for more support from other nations in the region, including South Korea and Japan. But its relationship with Seoul has come under strain, following a dispute over the release of information about two Nmeorth Korean prisoners of war. South Korea has withdrawn eight diplomatic personnel from Ukraine since President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed the North Korean soldiers were transferred to South Korea after being captured while fighting for Russia, an arrangement Seoul said was meant to be confidential.