Vladimir Putin has reportedly resorted to hiring North Korean workers amid “significant labour shortages” in Russia.
The country’s invasion of Ukraine is set to drag into its third year, and officials are having to “offset the resource shortages constraining Russia’s economy and war effort”, experts say.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said thousands of North Korean workers arrived in Russia in 2024 to take construction jobs, the Yonhap News Agency reports.
It comes as Russia suffers from “significant labour shortages” in its civilian and defence industrial sectors. This has been the case since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes.
It added in its daily report on the conflict that Russian official data shows that 13,221 North Koreans entered Russia in 2024. This total was up to 12 times the number that entered the country the year before.
Many of these workers are reportedly entering Russia on student visas, with 7,887 having entered Russia in 2024 allegedly for education reasons.
The ISW reported: “The arrival of several thousands of North Koreans to work in civilian sectors is marginal and will not significantly alleviate Russia’s labour shortages.
“Russia reportedly has an estimated labor shortage of 1.5 million workers as of December 2024, for example.”
These numbers could signal the start of “larger influxes” in the future, it is believed, which could more significantly help to mitigate Russia’s labour shortage issues.
Experts note that the Russian army initially used small numbers of North Korean artillery and mortar shells, but this has grown rapidly.
It is thought that 60% of artillery ammunition fired by Purin’s troops are now being sourced from North Korea, as of December 2024.
The ISW added: “Russian enterprises are also likely not paying North Korean workers the same salaries as Russian citizens, so a significant influx of North Korean workers into the Russian work force in the future could also financially benefit Russian enterprises that are having to offer high salaries to Russian citizens in order to compete against Russian military and defence industrial enterprises for employees.
“Significant increases in the number of North Koreans working in Russia’s civilian sectors in the future could also free up Russian civilian sector employees to work in the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) or fight in Ukraine.”
