Global Rights Compliance Reports North Korean Forced-Labor Network in Russia

Global Rights Compliance released an investigation on October 29 alleging that a Russian recruitment network brokers North Korean workers to Russian companies through student-visa arrangements. The organization said its nine-month inquiry traced the network to Moscow businessman Vladimir Sokolov and identified nine Russian sites associated with North Korea through it. According to the report, the platform KNDR.su advertised recruitment for commissions of 100,000–150,000 rubles per worker, with a minimum order of 50 people. GRC alleges that North Koreans are enrolled, sometimes fictitiously, at Russian colleges before being assigned to companies for practical training. It says the arrangements circumvent United Nations restrictions on North Korean overseas labor. Investigators used corporate registries, procurement records, customs data and visual material, supplemented by undercover inquiries. Posing as prospective factory owners, they contacted Ruslan Zhukov, whom the report identifies as the network's operations director. An offered factory visit never happened. GRC said North Korean embassy officials had visited factories including military-rations producer KPP Ruskon and metalworking plant Agrisovgaz. Investigator Dylan Carter said: “These workers do not come cheap, yet little, if any, of the money paid for their labour reaches them.” In a response reproduced in the report, Zhukov rejected the allegations and denied involvement in a forced-labor network. He said the North Koreans were college students undertaking educational and practical-training exchanges, and that their payments were scholarships rather than wages. He also denied supplying workers to KPP Ruskon. GRC states that its findings apply a reasonable-grounds-to-believe standard and do not constitute a judicial determination of criminal responsibility.