Latest news with #Resolution2375
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Korea used student visas to send thousands of workers to Russia, Seoul says
North Korea likely used student visas to send a large number of workers as well as troops to Russia in 2024, South Korea's intelligence agency has said. 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. 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. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have been accused of violating a UN Security Council Resolution, by using student visas and other gaps, which bans employment to North Korean labourers. Under the UN Security Council Resolution 2375, the UN member nations are banned from issuing work permits to the labour force of North Korea. The resolution mandated all existing North Korean workers to return home by the end of December 2019. 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. 'I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labour shortages after many were drafted for the war,' the Democratic Party of Korea representative said. The latest round of North Korean workers dispatched to Russia was lesser than what was the scenario before the UN slapped sanctions on the hermit kingdom, he said. 'But now that there are sanctions, they are not supposed to be sending workers at all,' Mr Wi said. Pyongyang sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to help with Vladimir Putin's war effort in November last year, four months after Kyiv's troops seized Russian territory in Kursk. Last week, Ukrainian and Western officials said North Korean troops have been pulled back from the frontline amid devastating losses but Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said they were back again on the frontline. Kim Jong Un's forces were not seen on the battlefield for around three weeks, Ukrainian special forces said. The reports have been backed by South Korea's spy agency, which said the North Korean troops had been withdrawn from the war frontline around the middle of January, the National Intelligence Service said earlier last week. But on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the Russian Army had "brought back in North Korean soldiers" who were carrying out "new assaults" in the region partially occupied by Ukraine.
The Independent
10-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
North Korea used student visas to send thousands of workers to Russia, Seoul says
North Korea likely used student visas to send a large number of workers as well as troops to Russia in 2024, South Korea 's intelligence agency has said. 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. 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. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have been accused of violating a UN Security Council Resolution, by using student visas and other gaps, which bans employment to North Korean labourers. Under the UN Security Council Resolution 2375, the UN member nations are banned from issuing work permits to the labour force of North Korea. The resolution mandated all existing North Korean workers to return home by the end of December 2019. 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. 'I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labour shortages after many were drafted for the war,' the Democratic Party of Korea representative said. The latest round of North Korean workers dispatched to Russia was lesser than what was the scenario before the UN slapped sanctions on the hermit kingdom, he said. 'But now that there are sanctions, they are not supposed to be sending workers at all,' Mr Wi said. Pyongyang sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to help with Vladimir Putin 's war effort in November last year, four months after Kyiv 's troops seized Russian territory in Kursk. Last week, Ukrainian and Western officials said North Korean troops have been pulled back from the frontline amid devastating losses but Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said they were back again on the frontline. Kim Jong Un 's forces were not seen on the battlefield for around three weeks, Ukrainian special forces said. 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. But on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the Russian Army had "brought back in North Korean soldiers" who were carrying out "new assaults" in the region partially occupied by Ukraine.
Korea Herald
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Thousands of North Korean workers sent to Russian construction sites: NIS
North Korea sent a large number of workers to Russia last year on top of troops, according to the National Intelligence Service in Seoul. The NIS said Sunday that North Korea has sent "thousands of workers to construction sites in various parts of Russia" over the past year -- a number that has grown since the estimate given last October. In October last year, the NIS had said in a briefing that about 4,000 North Korean workers were already believed to be in Russia, with each worker being paid a monthly stipend of approximately $800. Russia may be recruiting North Korean workers to fill the labor shortages in the construction industry due to its prolonged aggression against Ukraine, according to Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Wi Sung-lac, who was Seoul's ambassador to Russia. "I think North Korean workers may have been recruited to make up for the labor shortages after many were drafted for the war," Wi told The Korea Herald on Sunday. On North Korea providing thousands of workers to Russia in the space of a year, Wi said that before sanctions, it used to be tens of thousands. "But now that we have sanctions, they are not supposed to be sending workers at all," he said. North Korea's deployment of overseas workers violates UN Security Council Resolution 2375, which bans the issuance of work permits to North Korean laborers. Additionally, all existing North Korean workers were mandated to return home by the end of December 2019. However, North Korea and Russia are suspected of bypassing these restrictions by exploiting student visas and other loopholes to send workers abroad. The NIS has yet to confirm announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address Friday that North Korean soldiers have been brought back to the front line in Russia's Kursk region near the border with Ukraine. The NIS said in January that North Korean troops appeared to have been withdrawn from operations in Kursk, likely due to losses. The NIS believes as of mid-January, at least 300 North Korean soldiers operating in Russia's war have been killed, and some 2,700 have been wounded. According to the NIS, North Korea sent about 11,000 soldiers to Russia to fight Ukraine since October last year. North Korean soldiers are being paid around $2,000 a month each, the NIS said.
