North Korea used student visas to send thousands of workers to Russia, Seoul says
North Korea likely used student visas to send a large number of workers as well as troops to Russia in 2024, South Korea's intelligence agency has said.
The sanctioned east Asian country sent at least 'thousands of workers to construction sites in various parts of Russia' over the past year, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Sunday, confirming a major influx of North Korean nationals being sent to Russia.
In a briefing, the NIS official said around 4,000 North Korean workers – each being paid a monthly stipend of approximately $800 (£645) – were already believed to be in Russia, The Korean Herald reported.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang have been accused of violating a UN Security Council Resolution, by using student visas and other gaps, which bans employment to North Korean labourers.
Under the UN Security Council Resolution 2375, the UN member nations are banned from issuing work permits to the labour force of North Korea. The resolution mandated all existing North Korean workers to return home by the end of December 2019.
South Korean lawmaker and former Seoul's ambassador to Russia, Wi Sung Lac, said Russia may be recruiting North Korean workers to fill gaps in the construction industry created by its prolonged aggression against Ukraine.
'I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labour shortages after many were drafted for the war,' the Democratic Party of Korea representative said.
The latest round of North Korean workers dispatched to Russia was lesser than what was the scenario before the UN slapped sanctions on the hermit kingdom, he said. 'But now that there are sanctions, they are not supposed to be sending workers at all,' Mr Wi said.
Pyongyang sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to help with Vladimir Putin's war effort in November last year, four months after Kyiv's troops seized Russian territory in Kursk.
Last week, Ukrainian and Western officials said North Korean troops have been pulled back from the frontline amid devastating losses but Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said they were back again on the frontline.
Kim Jong Un's forces were not seen on the battlefield for around three weeks, Ukrainian special forces said.
The reports have been backed by South Korea's spy agency, which said the North Korean troops had been withdrawn from the war frontline around the middle of January, the National Intelligence Service said earlier last week.
But on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the Russian Army had "brought back in North Korean soldiers" who were carrying out "new assaults" in the region partially occupied by Ukraine.
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Chicago Tribune
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- Chicago Tribune
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Newsweek
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Americans Detained After Trying to Send Over 1,000 Bibles to North Korea
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CBS News
4 hours ago
- CBS News
Transcript: Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," June 29, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Pfizer board member and non-executive chairman of the board at Illumina, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 29, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, who joins us from New York. Welcome to "Face the Nation." AMB. IRAVANI: Thank you for having me. MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, can you give us some clarity? Does Iran intend to reconstitute a nuclear enrichment program on its soil? AMB. IRAVANI: You know that we are a member, responsible member, of the NPT, and according to the- this treaty, we have the mutual rights. It means that the right of one side will be the obligation of the other side. In the NPT, it has been defined that we have two very explicit right. The first is that we can have research on development, we can have the production of uranium, and we can have, to use, the peaceful energy. And the second right is that the legal protection by the IAEA for our activity and technical cooperation for our development program. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. AMB. IRAVANI: And in return, also, it will be two right for the agency in this regard, that they should have the full access according to the safe, comprehensive safeguard agreement. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. AMB. IRAVANI: And the second one is that to preserve our peaceful nuclear activity, will remain always in peaceful manner. So the enrichment is our right, and an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right. MARGARET BRENNAN: So you do plan to restart enrichment, that sounds like? AMB. IRAVANI: I think that enrichment will not- never stop. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, when you mentioned NPT, just for our listeners, you're talking about some of the international agreements Iran has made with the UN on nonproliferation and safeguards. You mentioned the UN nuclear inspectors. Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement yesterday saying that there were calls in Iran, this, I believe, is from a newspaper that the Supreme Leader oversees, accusing our prior guest, Rafael Grossi, of being an Israeli spy and calling for his arrest and execution. To be clear, is Iran threatening UN inspectors? AMB. IRAVANI: No, there is no any threat. It is a very clear law of the- our parliament that they have been suspended, our cooperation with IAEA, because the agency has not implemented their rights, their responsibility. Due to this it is a conditional law, and as long as this condition has not been set, so our cooperation with IAEA will be suspended. But whenever it set out as according to the law, so we can have- resume our cooperation. But there is no any threat against the general director of the IAEA. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that was published in Israel- in Iran's "Kayhan" newspaper. Your foreign minister did also say that the IAEA and Grossi himself are malign in intent. Are the IAEA personnel, are the inspectors already inside Iran safe? And can they go back to their work of inspecting your sites? AMB. IRAVANI: Exactly. They are in Iran. They are in the safe condition, but the activity has been suspended. They cannot have accesses to our site, but maybe some one, it is individual, opinion of the people that may criticize the IAEA or threat the general director. But we criticize IAEA. We- our assessment is that they have not done their jobs, so they failed and they prepared [inaudible] for such aggression against us. MARGARET BRENNAN: I imagine that you would condemn the calls for his execution? AMB. IRAVANI: Yeah. MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump's-- AMB. IRAVANI: (INAUDIBLE) --media. MARGARET BRENNAN: I know, and you're speaking to us from the UN. President Trump said Friday that Iranian officials want to meet with him personally, and he said that will be soon. Mr. Ambassador, is Tehran planning to drop this demand of indirect communication with the United States, and will you begin speaking with the Trump administration? AMB. IRAVANI: See you, we were in the negotiation, but because we know that any dispute between Iran and United States or other parts of the JCPOA cannot be resolved without the negotiation and using the peaceful means for- to resolve this dispute. So we are in the negotiation, and we are ready for the negotiation, but after this aggression, it is not proper condition for a new round of the negotiation, and there is no request for negotiation and meeting with the president. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the United States is wanting to meet with Iran to talk, and while the supreme leader issued a statement saying Iran had dealt the U.S. a slap in the face, after that, President Trump said he had actually stopped Israel from going further and had stopped Israel from an attempt to kill your supreme leader. Why not take the offer of a diplomatic lifeline? Because he seems to be offering one. AMB. IRAVANI: It is very gross violation of the international law that- threatening the Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran or any head of state, they have impunity from any attack. So we should understand that, what is the principle and condition for any negotiation? Negotiation is- has its- the principles, and it is a give and take process. So we should engage in the negotiation and discuss with each other, maybe we reach to a conclusion or not, but the unconditional surrender is not negotiation. It is dictating the policy toward us. If they are ready for negotiation, they will find us ready for that, but if they want to dictate us, it is impossible for any negotiation with them, MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Ambassador, thank you for your time today. We will be watching and waiting to see if there are any diplomatic opportunities. We'll be right back.
