A North Korean laborer recounts harrowing experiences of forced labor in Russia, revealing a system that exploits workers while keeping them in debt and without basic rights.
A North Korean labor survivor, known only by his initials “RT” to protect his identity, has shared a harrowing account of his experience with forced labor in Russia. He described a grueling work schedule that began before dawn and often extended late into the night, with little to no breaks. “Wake up before 6 a.m. to the Russian winter. Walk to the construction site as a group. Work from 7 a.m. until 10, 11 p.m., sometimes even midnight. Without breaks. There is no set end time. You finish when the target is met,” he recounted. “Rain, snow, it does not matter. We worked with no gloves, no heating, no protective equipment. My hands cracked so badly I could not grip the tools. But you do not stop.”
RT was one of approximately 100,000 North Korean workers sent abroad under the country’s state-sponsored labor program. He claimed he was promised a monthly salary of $800 but was left with only $10 after deductions. “I was told I could earn money,” he said. “That was all. Nobody mentioned a quota. Nobody told me that most of what I earn would be taken. I thought if I went to Russia and worked hard, I could save enough to build a better life for my family. When I arrived, I realized none of that was true. The money was not mine. It was never going to be mine.”
A recent report by the international human rights organization Global Rights Compliance sheds light on the dire conditions faced by North Korean laborers in Russia. The report reveals that Russian companies are employing these workers in violation of United Nations sanctions, often obscuring their identities to prevent them from knowing their employers. According to U.N. Security Council resolutions, member states are required to repatriate North Korean workers, making their continued presence in Russia a potential violation of international law.
The findings illustrate how North Korea allegedly sustains its regime under sanctions by exporting its citizens as laborers, extracting their wages, and maintaining strict control over them even outside its borders. Yeji Kim, an advisor for Global Rights Compliance, explained, “Every North Korean worker deployed abroad must pay a mandatory monthly sum to the state, known as the gukga gyehoekbun. As one worker told us, it must be paid ‘no matter what, dead or alive.’”
Typically, a worker earns around $800 a month for up to 420 hours of labor. However, between $600 and $850 is deducted for the quota, along with additional payments for travel debt and communal living expenses, leaving them with approximately $10. If workers fail to meet their quotas, the deficit is carried over, resulting in some being in debt for an entire year. One laborer described the quota as a “lump on his back” that dictated every aspect of his life abroad.
“Every month you must pay,” RT stated. “There is no negotiation. If you fall short, the debt carries forward to the next month. We were told, ‘The quota must be met by any means necessary, even if it meant paying out of their own pocket.’ You came to earn and you leave with nothing. And if you fail too many times, they send you home. Home does not mean relief. It means blacklisting, interrogation, and sometimes your family paying the price.”
The report identified all 11 International Labour Organization indicators of forced labor across 21 testimonies from workers in three Russian cities who did not know each other. These indicators include debt bondage, restriction of movement, withholding of wages, excessive overtime, physical violence, surveillance, deception, isolation, abuse of vulnerability, and abusive conditions.
Upon arrival in Russia, workers’ passports are confiscated by North Korean security officials, effectively trapping them in their work environments. “My passport was taken the day I arrived,” RT recalled. “I never held it again. I could not leave the worksite freely. The city was right there, beyond the fence, but we were sealed off from it. A few times a year, we were allowed out, but only in groups, heads counted, with a fixed time to return.”
Reports of physical violence are not uncommon, with one worker recounting an incident where he was beaten so severely that he could not work for two weeks. Surveillance was described as constant, with collective punishment used to compel workers to monitor one another.
Living conditions for these laborers are dire, with many describing overcrowded containers infested with cockroaches and bedbugs. Access to basic hygiene facilities is severely limited, with some workers reporting access to only one or two showers per year and, in some cases, just a single day off annually. One laborer lamented that they were forced to “lead lives worse than cattle.”
Kim noted the economic significance of the labor program for North Korea, stating, “The U.N. Panel of Experts estimates approximately $500 million annually from the labor program alone. For a country under the most comprehensive sanctions regime in U.N. history, that is a critical revenue stream. It sustains the political elite, funds internal patronage networks, and underwrites military ambitions, including nuclear development.”
The report’s findings come amid reports that North Korea has also supplied weapons and troops worth as much as $14 billion to support Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The authors of the report emphasize that host countries play a crucial role in enabling this exploitative system by allowing it to operate within their borders.
RT, now free from this oppressive system, feels a sense of obligation to speak out. “We are people just like you but working like a cow,” he said. “We have families. We left home because we wanted to give our children something better, and what we found was a system that took everything from us.” He expressed concern for those still trapped, stating, “I want people to know that right now, today, there are men on construction sites in Russia working 16 hours a day, sleeping in containers, earning nothing, with no way to call home and no way to leave. Their names are not in any report. Nobody knows they are there. But they are there. And if I could say one thing to them, it would be — the world is starting to listen. Please hold on,” according to Fox News Digital.