Russia Employs 25,000 North Koreans in Drone Production

The South Korean SBS News site has reported that as many as 100,000 North Koreans are working in China and Russia, with the latter employing up to 25,000 of them assembling Iranian-designed drones at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s Tatarstan as well as Russian arms manufacturing, steel processing facilities, and shipbuilding plants. The claim is based on a report published by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) on Wednesday, Sept. 16 (MSMT), excerpts of which are also cited by Bloomberg.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The Russian Foreign Ministry is said to have issued over 36,400 visas to North Koreans in 2025 – nearly four times the number issued the previous year. According to the report, 98% of visas issued by Russia to North Korea were for “students,” in an attempt to circumvent international sanctions. The movements of these workers and any interaction with outsiders is strictly controlled. Those who break the rules or attempt to flee risk reprisals being inflicted on their relatives remaining in North Korea (DPRK). The average salary offered by Russia is around $7,500 per year, which is assessed as around five times that paid in China, most, if not all, is confiscated by Kim Jong Un’s regime, leaving the workers in debt to the state. The provision of this labor support is yet another example of the cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang that included arms supply and troop deployments in return for financial and technical support for North Korea’s ballistic missile programs – which some estimates put as high as $800 million last year. While much of this makes its way back to the DPRK through its opaque banking system, the MSMT details instances of cash being physically transported in diplomatic vehicles and pouches, as well as by overseas business travelers. Other Topics of Interest Russian Drone Hits Kharkiv Mall, Woman Needs Medical Aid The 65-year-old employee was sheltering during the strike but later became unwell as emergency crews worked at the damaged site. The MSMT represents 11 countries, including the US, South Korea, Japan, the UK, Australia, and Canada, and is intended to monitor compliance with UN and other sanctions imposed on North Korea after Russia blocked the renewal of the mandate in 2024. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.