World News
North Koreans tell BBC they are being sent to work ‘like slaves’ in Russia
Thousands of North Koreans are being sent to work in slave-like conditions in Russia to fill a huge labour shortage exacerbated by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the BBC has learned.
Moscow has repeatedly turned to Pyongyang to help it fight the war, using its missiles, artillery shells and its soldiers.
Now, with many of Russia’s men either killed or tied up fighting – or having fled the country – South Korean intelligence officials have told the BBC that Moscow is increasingly relying on North Korean labourers.
We interviewed six North Korean workers who have fled Russia since the start of the war, along with government officials, researchers and those helping to rescue the labourers.
They detailed how the men are subjected to “abysmal” working conditions, and how the North Korean authorities are tightening their control over the workers to stop them escaping.
One of the workers, Jin, told the BBC that when he landed in Russia’s Far East, he was chaperoned from the airport to a construction site by a North Korean security agent, who ordered him not to talk to anyone or look at anything.
“The outside world is our enemy,” the agent told him. He was put straight to work building high-rise apartment blocks for more than 18 hours a day, he said.
All six workers we spoke to described the same punishing workdays – waking at 6am and being forced to build high-rise apartments until 2am the next morning, with just two days off a year.
We have changed their names to protect them.
“Waking up was terrifying, realising you had to repeat the same day over again,” said another construction worker, Tae, who managed to escape Russia last year. Tae recalled how his hands would seize up in the morning, unable to open, paralysed from the previous day’s work.
“Some people would leave their post to sleep in the day, or fall asleep standing up, but the supervisors would find them and beat them. It was truly like we were dying,” said another of the workers, Chan.
“The conditions are truly abysmal,” said Kang Dong-wan, a professor at South Korea’s Dong-A University who has travelled to Russia multiple times to interview North Korean labourers.
“The workers are exposed to very dangerous situations. At night the lights are turned out and they work in the dark, with little safety equipment.”
The escapees told us that the workers are confined to their construction sites day and night, where they are watched by agents from North Korea’s state security department. They sleep in dirty, overcrowded shipping containers, infested with bugs, or on the floor of unfinished apartment blocks, with tarps pulled over the door frames to try to keep out the cold.
One labourer, Nam, said he once fell four metres off his building site and “smashed up” his face, leaving him unable to work. Even then his supervisors would not let him leave the site to visit a hospital.
In the past, tens of thousands of North Koreans worked in Russia earning millions of pounds a year for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and his cash-strapped regime. Then in 2019, the UN banned countries from using these workers in an attempt to cut off Kim’s funds and stop him building nuclear weapons, meaning most were sent home.
But last year more than 10,000 labourers were sent to Russia, according to a South Korean intelligence official speaking to the BBC on the condition of anonymity. They told us that even more were expected to arrive this year, with Pyongyang possibly dispatching more than 50,000 workers in total.
The sudden influx means North Korean workers are now “everywhere in Russia,” the official added. While most are working on large-scale construction projects, others have been assigned to clothing factories and IT centres, they said, in violation of the UN sanctions banning the use of North Korean labour.
Russian government figures show that more than 13,000 North Koreans entered the country in 2024, a 12-fold increase from the previous year. Nearly 8,000 of them entered on student visas but, according to the intelligence official and experts, this is a tactic used by Russia to bypass the UN ban.
In June, a senior Russian official, Sergei Shoigu, admitted for the first time that 5,000 North Koreans would be sent to rebuild Kursk, a Russian region seized by Ukrainian forces last year but who have since been pushed back.
The South Korean official told us it was also “highly likely” some North Koreans would soon be deployed to work on reconstruction projects in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
“Russia is suffering a severe labour shortage right now and North Koreans offer the perfect solution. They are cheap, hard-working and don’t get into trouble,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a renowned expert in North Korea-Russia relations.
These overseas construction jobs are highly coveted in North Korea as they promise to pay better than the work at home. Most workers go hoping to escape poverty and be able to buy a house for their family or start a business when they return. Only the most trusted men are selected after being rigorously vetted, and they must leave their families behind.
But the bulk of their earnings is sent straight to the North Korean state as “loyalty fees”. The remaining fraction – usually between $100-200 (£74-£149) a month – is marked down on a ledger. The workers only receive this money when they return home – a recent tactic, experts say, to stop them running away.
Once the men realise the reality of the harsh work and lack of pay, it can be shattering. Tae said he was “ashamed” when he learnt that other construction workers from central Asia were being paid five times more than him for a third of the work. “I felt like I was in a labour camp; a prison without bars,” he said.
The labourer Jin still bristles when he remembers how the other workers would call them slaves. “You are not men, just machines that can speak,” they jeered. At one point, Jin’s manager told him he might not receive any money when he returned to North Korea because the state needed it instead. It was then he decided to risk his life to escape.
Tae made the decision to defect after watching YouTube videos showing how much workers in South Korea were paid. One night, he packed his belongings into a bin liner, stuffed a blanket under his bed sheets to make it look as if he was still sleeping, and crept out of his construction site. He hailed a taxi and travelled thousands of kilometres across the country to meet a lawyer who helped arrange his journey on to Seoul.
In recent years, a small number of workers have been able to orchestrate their escapes using forbidden second-hand smartphones, bought by saving the small daily allowance they received for cigarettes and alcohol.
In an attempt to prevent these escapes, multiple sources have told us that the North Korean authorities are now cracking down on workers’ already limited freedom.
According to Prof Kang from Dong-A University, one way the regime has tried to control the workers over the last year is by subjecting them to more frequent ideological training and self-criticism sessions, in which they are forced to declare their loyalty to Kim Jong Un and log their failings.
Rare opportunities to leave construction sites have also been cut. “The workers used to go out in groups once a month, but recently these trips have reduced to almost zero,” Prof Kang added.
Kim Seung-chul, a Seoul-based activist who helps rescue North Korean workers from Russia, said these outings were being more tightly controlled. “They used to be allowed to leave in pairs, but since 2023 they have had to travel in groups of five and are monitored more intensely.”
In this climate, fewer workers are managing to escape. The South Korean government told us the number of North Koreans making it out of Russia each year and arriving in Seoul had halved since 2022 – from around 20 a year to just 10.
Mr Lankov, the expert in North Korea-Russia relations, said the crackdowns were likely in preparation for many more workers arriving.
“These workers will be the lasting legacy of Kim and Putin’s wartime friendship,” he said, arguing the workers would continue arriving long after the war had ended, and the deployment of soldiers and weapons had ceased.
Additional reporting by Jake Kwon and Hosu Lee
Belem (Imran Y. CHOUDHRY):- Australia will not hold next year’s UN climate summit, Australia will allow Türkiye to host COP31 next year but Australia will lead negotiations there.
Climate Minister Chris Bowen revealing Australia was willing to cede hosting rights to Türkiye in exchange for it handing him the reins of the negotiations and cementing a major role for the Pacific at the summit.
There had been a growing expectation that Australia would drop its bid to host COP31 in Adelaide as it struggled to convince Türkiye to pull out of the contest.
Under UN rules, if the two countries were unable to strike a deal, then the meeting location would automatically revert to Germany, which hosts the United Nations body responsible for the Paris Agreement.
This unusual arrangement has taken observers by surprise. It is normal for a COP president to be from the host country and how this new partnership will work in practice remains to be seen.
Despite this, there will be relief among countries currently meeting at COP30 in the Brazilian city of Belém that a compromise has been reached as the lack of agreement on the venue was becoming an embarrassment for the UN.
Australia has pushed hard to have the climate summit in the city of Adelaide, arguing that they would co-host the meeting with Pacific island states who are seen as among the most vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels.
Turkey, which has proposed hosting COP31 in the city of Antalya, felt that they had a good claim to be the host country as they had stood aside in 2021 and allowed the UK to hold the meeting in Glasgow.
If neither country was willing to compromise then the meeting would have been held in the German city of Bonn, the headquarters of the UN’s climate body.
As a result of discussions at COP30, a compromise appears to have been reached.
This includes pre-COP meeting will be held on a Pacific island, while the main event is held in Turkey.
Australian Minister believes having a COP president not from the host country will work and that he will have the considerable authority reserved for the president of these gatherings. As COP president of negotiations, I would have all the powers of the COP presidency to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, to issue the cover decision,” he said.
He also confirmed to Turkey will also appoint a president who will run the venue, organise the meetings and schedules.
Australia’s climbdown will be embarrassing for the government of Mr Albanese, after lobbying long and hard to win support among the other nations in the Western Europe group.
The compromise will have to be ratified by more than 190 countries gathered here for COP30 in Belem, Brazil.
Photos @ Imran Y. CHOUDHRY
A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the richest passengers on the Titanic is expected to fetch £1m at auction.
Isidor Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 people who died when the vessel travelling from Southampton to New York sank after hitting an iceberg on 14 April 1912.
His body was recovered from the Atlantic days after the disaster and among his possessions was an 18 carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch that will go under the hammer on 22 November.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, told BBC Radio Wiltshire: “With the watch, we are retelling Isidor’s story. It’s a phenomenal piece of memorabilia.”
Mr Straus was a Bavarian-born American businessman, politician, and co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York.
“They were a very famous New York couple,” said Mr Aldridge.
“Everyone would know them from the end of James Cameron’s Titanic movie, when there is an elderly couple hugging as the ship is sinking – that’s Isidor and Ida.”
On the night of the sinking, it is believed his devoted wife refused a place in a lifeboat as she did not want to leave her husband and said she would rather die by his side.
Ida’s body was never found.
The pocket watch stopped at 02:20, the moment the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves.
It is believed to have been a gift from Ida to her husband in 1888 and is engraved with Straus’ initials.
It was returned to his family and was passed down through generations before Kenneth Hollister Straus, Isidor’s great-grandson, had the movement repaired and restored.
It will be sold alongside a rare letter Ida wrote aboard the liner describing its luxury.
She wrote: “What a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed. Our rooms are furnished in the best of taste and most luxurious.”
The letter is postmarked “TransAtlantic 7” meaning it was franked on board in the Titanic’s post office before being taken off with other mail at Queenstown, Ireland.
Both items will be offered by Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, with the letter estimated to fetch £150,000.
The watch is set to become one of the most expensive Titanic artefacts ever sold.
The auction house said news of the sale had already generated “significant interest from clients all over the world”.
“Theirs was the ultimate love story – Isidor epitomised the American Dream, rising from humble immigrant to a titan of the New York establishment, owning Macy’s department store,” a spokesperson for the auction house said.
“As the ship was sinking, despite being offered a seat in a lifeboat, Ida refused to leave her husband and stated to him ‘Isidor we have been together all of these years, where you go, I go’.”
The spokesperson added: “This is the reason why collectors are interested in the Titanic story 113 years later – every man, woman and child had a story to tell and those stories now are retold through these objects.”
A gold pocket watch presented to the captain of the Carpathia, the steamship which rescued more than 700 Titanic survivors, sold last year a record-breaking £1.56m.
Ukraine’s energy and justice ministers have resigned in the wake of a major investigation into corruption in the country’s energy sector.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko’s removal on Wednesday.
On Monday anti-corruption bodies accused several people of orchestrating a embezzlement scheme in the energy sector worth about $100m (£76m), including at the national nuclear operator Enerhoatom.
Some of those implicated in the scandal are – or have been – close associates of Zelensky’s.
The allegation is that Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and other key ministers and officials received payments from contractors building fortifications against Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Among those alleged to be involved are former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and Timur Mindich – a businessman and a co-owner of Zelensky’s former TV studio Kvartal95. He has since reportedly fled the country.
Halushchenko said he would defend himself against the accusations, while Grynchuk said on social media: “Within the scope of my professional activities there were no violations of the law.”
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sap) said the investigation – which was 15 months in the making and involved 1,000 hours of audio recordings – uncovered the participation of several members of the Ukrainian government.
According to Nabu, the people involved systematically collected kickbacks from Enerhoatom contractors worth between 10% and 15% of contract values.
The anti-corruption bodies also said the huge sums had been laundered in the scheme and published photographs of bags full of cash. The funds were then transferred outside Ukraine, including to Russia, Nabu said.
Prosecutors alleged that the scheme’s proceeds were laundered through an office in Kyiv linked to the family of former Ukrainian lawmaker and current Russian senator Andriy Derkach.
Nabu has been releasing new snippets of its investigation and wiretaps every day and on Tuesday it promised more would come.
The scandal is unfolding against the backdrop of escalating Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, including substations that supply electricity to nuclear power plants.
It will also shine a spotlight on corruption in Ukraine, which continues to be endemic despite work by Nabu and Sap in the 10 years since they were created.
In July, nationwide protests broke out over changes curbing the independence of Nabu and Sap. Ukrainians feared the nation could lose the coveted status of EU candidate country which it was granted on condition it mounted a credible fight against corruption.
Kyiv’s European partners also expressed severe alarm at the decision, with ambassadors from the G7 group of nations expressing the desire to discuss the issue with the Ukrainian leadership.
The backlash was the most severe to hit the Ukrainian government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and was only quelled by Zelensky’s decision to reinstate the freedom of the two anti-corruption bodies.
Yet for some that crisis brought into question Zelensky’s dedication to anti-corruption reforms. The latest scandal threatens to lead to more awkward questions for the Ukrainian president.
New Eurasia Policy Council Launches in UK Parliament, Aims to Forge Bridges on Geopolitics and Climate
Turkey host the COP31 after reaching compromise with Australia
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