Foreign workers from North Korea flee and hide in Russia after finding out they will be sent to Ukraine. The workers are well aware of the significance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and fear for their lives. “The North Korean workers are nowhere to be seen on the construction sites these days”
More and more North Korean construction workers who arrived in Russia are running away from their jobs after hearing they were to be sent to Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, the RFA website reports.
Cash-strapped North Korea sends legions of workers to Russia to bring in foreign currency, the workers hand over the lion’s share of their wages to the government, but what they get to keep for themselves amounts to far more than they could earn doing similar work in North Korea.
But now that there is demand for construction in the Russian-controlled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, a growing number of North Korean construction workers are abandoning their jobs and going into hiding, a Russian citizen of Korean descent told European media. He said that “the North Korean workers who went underground are nowhere to be seen at the construction sites these days. The reason for this is that the command ordered them to stop their work for an internal investigation, as a growing number of them are trying to escape after hearing that they will be sent to the Donbas region in Ukraine.” said the source.
The employees are well aware of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the source. Although the North Korean government is able to control communications within its borders, it cannot as easily control what information reaches its citizens overseas. “After we received the news that the workers will soon be transferred to a new construction site in Ukraine, and have to arrange everything by the end of September, many fled. Not only the construction workers, but also the management officials,” said the source.
The Vladivostok construction sites in the Russian Far East are empty, a source told RFA. “I know that some North Korean companies are on standby as the officials in charge of managing the workers have escaped one by one,” the second source said. The problem of employee flight is not new. Even in times of relative peace, many of the North Koreans who arrived in Russia are missing.
Although the sanctions prohibit North Korea from sending workers overseas and prevent countries from issuing work visas to North Koreans, North Korea sends workers to China and Russia on student or short-term visitor visas to circumvent the sanctions.