Thousands of North Korean workers sent to Russian construction sites: NIS
North Korea sent a large number of workers to Russia last year on top of troops, according to the National Intelligence Service in Seoul.
The NIS said Sunday that North Korea has sent "thousands of workers to construction sites in various parts of Russia" over the past year -- a number that has grown since the estimate given last October.
In October last year, the NIS had said in a briefing that about 4,000 North Korean workers were already believed to be in Russia, with each worker being paid a monthly stipend of approximately $800.
Russia may be recruiting North Korean workers to fill the labor shortages in the construction industry due to its prolonged aggression against Ukraine, according to Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Wi Sung-lac, who was Seoul's ambassador to Russia.
"I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labor shortages after many were drafted for the war," Wi told The Korea Herald on Sunday.
On North Korea providing thousands of workers to Russia in the space of a year, Wi said that before sanctions, it used to be tens of thousands. "But now that we have sanctions, they are not supposed to be sending workers at all," he said.
North Korea's deployment of overseas workers violates UN Security Council Resolution 2375, which bans the issuance of work permits to North Korean laborers. Additionally, all existing North Korean workers were mandated to return home by the end of December 2019.
However, North Korea and Russia are suspected of bypassing these restrictions by exploiting student visas and other loopholes to send workers abroad.
The NIS has yet to confirm announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address Friday that North Korean soldiers have been brought back to the front line in Russia's Kursk region near the border with Ukraine.
The NIS said in January that North Korean troops appeared to have been withdrawn from operations in Kursk, likely due to losses. The NIS believes as of mid-January, at least 300 North Korean soldiers operating in Russia's war have been killed, and some 2,700 have been wounded.
According to the NIS, North Korea sent about 11,000 soldiers to Russia to fight Ukraine since October last year. North Korean soldiers are being paid around $2,000 a month each, the NIS said.
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