Here is the original report: The DPRK’s Use of Overseas Labour to Violate and Evade UN Sanctions (pdf)
A new report has found that North Korean overseas workers raised between $US450 million ($AU633 million) and $US800 million last year for the authoritarian state’s nuclear weapons program.
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team report — co-signed by a range of Western governments and US allies — details “systemic evasion of UN sanctions by the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and other countries through a global network of unlawful overseas labour”.
It says the overseas labourers - who work under exploitative labour conditions and whose wages are confiscated - were working primarily in China and Russia and numbered anywhere between 35,000 and 101,000 workers.
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China has always denied hosting illegal workers from North Korea — and pushed out at least 10,000 workers between 2023 and 2025 — but human rights groups and investigative reporters have documented how thousands can still be found working in Chinese factories, plants and fishing fleets.
The MSMT report estimates that China still hosts between 20,000 and 70,000 North Korean labourers.
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The reports key findings:
- Generating Illicit Revenue: Despite the strict 2019 repatriation deadline, the DPRK continues to operate an unlawful overseas labour program that generated between $450 million and $800 million in 2025 alone. The DPRK government actively deploys an estimated 35,600 to 101,280 North Korean labourers across at least 17 countries, funnelling earnings into the government’s strategic priorities, including its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
- Most Located in China: Most North Korean labourers are deployed in China, with an estimated 20,000 to 70,000 labourers currently operating there. Despite a temporary repatriation of 10,000-20,000 workers between 2023 and 2025, approximately 10,000 new North Korean labourers arrived in China between January 2025 and January 2026. The number of North Korean labourers dispatched to China is expected to grow.
- Russia a Growing Hub: North Korean labourers are increasingly deployed to work in Russia, including an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 as of the end of 2025. North Korean labourers are manufacturing military drones for Russia on Russian soil, such as in drone factories located in Alabuga, Tatarstan. The Russian government has created a student visa scheme to camouflage North Korean labourers in Russia as students. Each North Korean labourer in Russia generates an average estimated $7,500 in wages annually. Estimates indicate that monthly wages earned by North Korean labourers in Russia may be up to five times as high compared to monthly wages in China, depending on the industry.
- Wage Confiscation and Exploitative Working Conditions: The DPRK government confiscates 80-90% of wages earned by North Korean labourers. In some cases, the confiscated amount exceeds their actual earnings, leaving North Korean overseas labourers indebted to the DPRK government. North Korean labourers endure long work hours and exploitative conditions. DPRK authorities also exercise extreme control over labourers’ movement and interactions with outsiders in order to prevent defections, while labourers who do defect risk reprisals against family members remaining in North Korea.
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