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BREAKING NEWS: N. Korea Deploys over 100,000 Workers Overseas, Earns $800 Mil. in 2025

The monitoring team said nearly all wages are seized by Pyongyang, with 17 countries suspected of hosting laborers despite U.N. repatriation rules.

  • On Wednesday, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team released a report showing North Korea maintains around 100,000 workers abroad, generating between $450 million and $800 million in 2025 for nuclear weapons programs.
  • Despite the 2019 repatriation deadline mandated by UNSCR 2397, North Korea continues deploying workers primarily to China and Russia, with an estimated 35,600 to 101,280 individuals remaining stationed abroad.
  • Russia created a 'student visa' scheme to "camouflage" North Korean workers manufacturing military drones, while laborers forfeit 80-90 percent of earnings to the regime.
  • Lara Strangways, director of human rights foundation Global Rights Compliance, called the report "alarming," citing workers channeled through brokers into systems of debt bondage and surveillance.
  • The MSMT urges United Nations member states to hold responsible parties accountable for UNSCR violations and calls on the Security Council to reestablish the Panel of Experts.
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A report reveals that North Korea has sent up to 100,000 laborers abroad, mostly to China and Russia. Some work in military drone factories in Russia, generating up to 25.8 billion baht in revenue by 2025.

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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Min Seon-hee = It has been found that North Korea is dispatching workers to a Russian drone factory to produce military drones for Russia.

·Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)
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The Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which monitors North Korea's violations of UN Security Council resolutions, stated that up to 101,280 North Korean workers are dispatched overseas and earned up to $800 million (approximately 1.07 trillion won) in revenue last year. The dispatch of personnel to Russia, including to drone factories, is increasing significantly.

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조선일보 broke the news on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
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