DPRK earns up to $800 million from workers abroad despite sanctions

North Korea continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from its citizens working abroad despite UN sanctions. In 2025, such workers may have brought the regime approximately $450-800 million.

This was reported by The Korea Herald. According to estimates cited by the publication, during 2025, between 35.6 thousand and 101.3 thousand North Koreans worked outside the DPRK in at least 17 countries.

The largest center remains China, where between 20 thousand and 70 thousand workers from the DPRK may have been present. They are employed, in particular, in the garment industry, fish processing, electronics, and IT.

The second major destination was Russia. It is estimated that at the end of 2025, about 15-30 thousand DPRK citizens may have worked there.

The problem became particularly acute after the rapprochement between Moscow and Pyongyang. In a report by a multilateral sanctions monitoring group submitted to the UN in 2025, it was noted that the DPRK planned to send thousands more workers to Russia in construction and the forestry industry. It also mentioned sending IT specialists and medical personnel.

Sanctions were supposed to stop labor exports

The UN Security Council back in 2017 prohibited countries from issuing new work permits to DPRK citizens, except in separately agreed cases. Later, UN member states were to repatriate North Korean workers earning money abroad by the end of 2019.

However, these restrictions did not fully stop the system. The US State Department previously reported that the majority of North Korean workers abroad are concentrated precisely in China and Russia, and that tourist or student visas may be used to circumvent sanctions.

According to the US agency, North Korean authorities often control the earnings of such workers and may confiscate up to 90% of their wages. People often work 12-16 hours a day, are restricted in movement, and do not have access to their own passports.

Thus, foreign labor remains a significant source of foreign currency for Pyongyang, and China and Russia are the key countries through which this system continues to operate despite international restrictions.

Based on materials from: The Korea Herald, UN, US State Department