Russia is increasingly using North Korean citizens to assemble combat drones for its war against Ukraine, circumventing international sanctions while providing Pyongyang with an important source of foreign currency, according to a report published by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) on Sept. 16. Over the past year, North Korean migrant workers abroad generated as much as $800 million for Kim Jong Un’s government, which used the funds to finance nuclear and missile programs in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the report states.
The report estimates that as many as 25,000 North Koreans are employed in Russia’s drone industry, including at facilities in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, where Geran-type attack drones, modeled on Iran’s Shahed series, are assembled. Russia gains a new pool of workers for industries supporting its war against Ukraine while further eroding a sanctions regime against Pyongyang that Moscow itself once helped enforce.
According to the MSMT, North Korean workers in Russia are often categorized as students under a special visa arrangement that allows sanctions to be circumvented without the need for a formal breach. One “student” worker earns an average of about $7,500 a year, the report said, with most of that money confiscated by the North Korean government.
Monthly pay in Russia can be up to five times higher than in China, making Russia an increasingly attractive destination for Pyongyang to send such laborers. Still, as of the end of 2025, between 20,000 and 70,000 North Koreans were working in China, compared with 15,000 to 30,000 in Russia.
“DPRKauthorities 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,” the report said.
It was previously reported that North Korean workers at construction sites in three Russian cities were working up to 16 hours a day with virtually no days off and receiving no more than $10 a month after deductions. Their passports were confiscated by representatives of North Korean security services, and the workers often did not know who their actual employer was because Russian companies hired them in violation of UN sanctions.
The MSMT, which includes the United States, South Korea, Japan and eight other countries, was established in 2024 after Russia blocked the renewal of the mandate for a UN panel that had monitored compliance with sanctions against Pyongyang for 15 years.
