In short:
Russian brokers are advertising North Korean workers to companies as part of a forced labour program, a new report has alleged.
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report → advertise → program
It found those involved are working up to 12 hours a day, six to seven times a week, and forfeiting most of their income to the North Korea's authoritarian regime.
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those → find → regime
The report found some North Korean workers were being sent to "facilities essential to Russia's war economy".
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workers → find → economy
North Korean workers are being advertised online as for sale to Russian businesses as part of a forced labour program, a new report has found.
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report → advertise → program
The workers' wages are being used to fund North Korea's ballistic missile program, and their labour is boosting the Kremlin's war economy, it alleges.
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it → use → economy
International human rights group Global Rights Compliance (GRC) said it had members pose undercover as representatives of a prospective company as part of a nine-month investigation into a labour-brokering network run by a Russian businessman.
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members → say → businessman
It found the broker network charges a commission of between 100,000 and 150,000 roubles ($1,765 to $2,650) per North Korean worker it places with a company.
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it → find → company
The group alleges the North Koreans then work up to 12 hours a day, six to seven times a week, and forfeit most of their income to the authoritarian regime.
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Koreans → allege → regime
It said the Russian brokers have "turned the supply of North Korean labour into an organised industry".
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brokers → say → industry
"It's shocking to me, the normalisation of slave labour conditions in Russia," the report's lead investigator, Dylan Carter, told the ABC.
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investigator → tell → ABC
He said North Korean workers were being treated as "commodities".
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workers → say → commodities
They are advertised for the fact that they can fulfil these gruelling shifts, that you can have complete control of these workers, that their documents are seized, that they can work in unsecure working conditions."
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they → advertise → conditions
It is the latest in a series of reports to investigate the use of labour from North Korea, in breach of a resolution from the United Nations Security Council, which requires member states to repatriate North Koreans earning money in their territory.
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which → investigate → territory
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, an international coalition set up to report on violations of UN sanctions against North Korea, recently found North Korean overseas workers raised between $US450 million ($633 million) and $US800 million last year for the authoritarian state's nuclear weapons program.
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workers → set → program
It found there could be anywhere between 35,000 and 101,000 North Korean workers overseas, primarily in China and Russia.
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It → find → China
North Korea has denied providing forced labour, although organisations, including the United Nations, have documented it.
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organisations → deny → it
Russia has also denied violating UN resolutions on using North Korean workers, despite several reports documenting it.
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Russia → deny → it
North Korean 'students' sent to work in Russia
The GRC report focuses on a brokering network allegedly run by Moscow-based businessman Vladimir Sokolov.
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report → send → Sokolov
A website it links to him advertises "Industrial internships for students from the DPRK [North Korea] in Russia".
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it → link → Russia
It found his brokering network places groups of at least 50 workers at companies and receives payments for each worker.
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network → find → worker
Undercover GRC investigators were reportedly told by an operations manager working for Mr Sokolov that "North Korean workers enter Russia on student visas, are enrolled at colleges they never attend, and are placed within Russian companies".
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they → tell → companies
A change in Russian migration law in 2020 allows foreign students to work while studying in the country.
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students → allow → country
"This arrangement avoids work authorisations prohibited under UN sanctions and places workers outside of the protections of Russian labour law," the report says.
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report → avoid → law
The investigation also found the Russian companies must have an official audit visit from North Korean officials before workers are sent there.
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workers → find → officials
"Taken together, the findings show that North Korean labour in Russia is the product of an organised system rather than informal, ad hoc, or isolated labour arrangements," the report found.
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report → take → system
The report said there were other brokers bringing in North Koreans, but that Mr Sokolov "distinguishes his scheme" by arguing it is "lawful because the 'students' are undertaking 'work training' as part of their education".
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students → say → education
The report authors said they approached Mr Sokolov for comment but did not receive a response.
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they → say → response
Another businessman associated with the network denied the North Koreans were workers, saying they were students doing "practical training at production sites" and the payments were "academic scholarships".
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payments → associate → sites
He said there was no "forced labour network" and that the allegations were "unsubstantiated" and based on "speculation".
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allegations → say → speculation
While the majority of North Korean overseas workers are believed to be in China, there has been a growing number going to Russia, as the two countries tighten ties.
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countries → believe → ties
The GRC said "economic pressures and demands of [the] Ukraine war" are adding to Russia's need to boost its workforce, and its report found North Korean workers were "being used in facilities essential to Russia's war economy".
Mr Carter said North Korean workers were detected at an aluminium manufacturing plant that had contracts with major defence suppliers.
The GRC also sourced photos of workers at a food manufacturer that produces dry rations for Russian soldiers.
Mr Carter said the photos were from a dog food line, but it was believed the North Koreans were also working packaging the military rations, which came out of the same building.
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which → say → building
"You can see evidence of those food rations strewn all over the battlefield in Ukraine as Russian soldiers eat these dry rations which were prepared at this factory,"he said.
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which → see → factory,"he
The workers are paid a proper wage, but it is alleged up to 90 per cent of overseas workers' wages are forfeited to the North Korean regime, helping to fund its ballistic missiles program.
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cent → pay → program
Mr Carter said when the workers arrived in Russia, they faced a "stark and depressing world" where they were monitored and controlled.
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they → say → world
"These are arrangements that benefit the North Korean and Russian states very heavily at the cost of North Korean civilians who ultimately pay the price for their labour," he said.
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he → benefit → labour
EU-sanctioned Russian businessman named in report
The Russian businessman investigated in the report, Mr Sokolov, has recently been sanctioned by the European Union.
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businessman → sanction → Union
Just over two weeks ago, the Council of the EU added Mr Sokolov to a list of people and entities that are "responsible for supporting, promoting or facilitating activities" that contribute to North Korea's weapons programs and "violating and evading United Nations sanctions".
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that → add → sanctions
The sanctions include an asset freeze and a ban on travelling to the European Union.
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sanctions → include → Union
He was one of three individuals and two entities added to the list, which now runs to more than 100, as part of a focus on activities "linked to the growing military and economic cooperation between the DPRK [North Korea] and Russia".
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which → add → DPRK
The council has accused Mr Sokolov of "promoting and facilitating commercial and industrial cooperation projects" with North Korea.
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council → accuse → Korea
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
