“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 South Korean 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. …”

BBC article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2077gwjlvxo

For context, the Russians have over 100 million more people than the Ukrainians.

There are some things not even Russians can be paid to do.

Russia had for decades, courtesy of the Tsars, then, communists and always the associated secret police forces, a constantly-renewed source of slave labor. If they were short of slaves, new purges were ordered, new crimes defined - the quotas were always met.

Now, they're outsourcing. Who'd a thunk it?

The North Koreans are probably better off in Russia than at home.

This could very well be true, but so much propaganda comes out of there, I just can't believe any of it. Remember the start of the the 1990-91 Gulf War, where the Iraqis supposedly dumped babies out of incubators?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
This could very well be true, but so much propaganda comes out of there, I just can't believe any of it. Remember the start of the the 1990-91 Gulf War, where the Iraqis supposedly dumped babies out of incubators?

I haven’t seen “so much propaganda” out of South Korea.

This is not new, it’s been happening for decades. In less than appealing countries all over the world. There’s a lot of North Korean labor being used in Africa as well as Asia.

Could just be the BBC demonizing Russia. Fits nicely into the official narative.