Report says North Korean workers aid Russia war factories

October 27-28 Global Rights Compliance, a Hague-based foundation, reported a Russian broker network places North Korean workers in Russian jobs GRC called exploitative, including a military rations factory. GRC said it reviewed corporate and procurement records, ads, videos and photos, used facial recognition, and posed undercover as employers. Workers enter on student visas to evade U.N. hiring bans, face long shifts and threats, and lose most wages to the North Korean regime, the group said. Vladimir Sokolov's Black Horse promoted teams on KNDR.su as working 28 days a month, 12 hours a day, who do not arrive late, drink alcohol or fight, and will not run away because documents are controlled. The site was renamed from North Korean Labor Corps to North Korean Student Internships. Sokolov is on EU sanctions lists. Black Horse claims to supply machinery ordered by the Russian Ministry of Defense. CONTESTED FT cited publication on October 28; SBS cited October 27. Ads in the GRC material state 12-hour days with two days off a month; SBS reported shifts up to 18 hours a day, six to seven days a week, surrender of up to 90 percent of earnings, and $450 million to $800 million in North Korean revenue from overseas workers. No other core factual disputes appear in the rated coverage. Lara Strangeways said North Korean labor is sustaining Russian industries related to the war in Ukraine, and the wages earned by North Korean workers are used to fund North Korea's military programs. Elise Lauriot Prevost said this investigation exposes a dangerous convergence between two states' military ambitions: North Korea's use of overseas forced labor to finance its weapons program, and Russia's growing reliance on labor to sustain its war economy. Dylan Carter said these workers do not come cheap, yet little, if any, of the money paid for their labor reaches them; instead, it lines the pockets of the DPRK state. One network figure denied the allegations; officials did not respond.