North Korea used student visas to send thousands of workers to Russia, Seoul says Around 4,000 North Korean workers being paid a monthly stipend of approximately £645 in Russia, says Seoul.
South Korean lawmaker and former Seoul’s ambassador to Russia, Wi Sung Lac, said Russia may be recruiting North Korean workers to fill gaps in the construction industry created by its prolonged aggression against Ukraine.
The sanctioned east Asian country sent at least “thousands of workers to construction sites in various parts of Russia” over the past year, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Sunday, confirming a major influx of North Korean nationals being sent to Russia.
The reports have been backed by South Korea’s spy agency, which said the North Korean troops had been withdrawn from the war frontline around the middle of January, the National Intelligence Service said earlier last week.
In a briefing, the NIS official said around 4,000 North Korean workers – each being paid a monthly stipend of approximately $800 (£645) – were already believed to be in Russia, The Korean Herald reported.
