Report says North Korean overseas workers raised up to $800 million for nuclear programme

A new monitoring report says North Korean overseas workers generated between $450 million and $800 million last year for the country's nuclear weapons programme. The report says the labour network operated mainly in China and Russia and was part of what it described as systemic evasion of United Nations sanctions. It also says the workers were used through a global network of unlawful overseas labour.

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The findings were published by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a coalition formed in 2024 by countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom. The report says North Korea maintained an overseas labour force of between 35,000 and 101,000 people. It adds that at least 17 countries are suspected of continuing to host North Korean labourers.

According to the report, the vast majority of those workers were in Russia and China. It says the labour network helped Pyongyang evade sanctions while generating hard currency for the state. Human rights groups have long criticised North Korea's overseas labour system, saying workers are subjected to control, abuse and coercion while earning money for the regime.

The report is significant because it links overseas labour directly to North Korea's nuclear financing. That matters for sanctions enforcement, which has been a central part of international efforts to limit the country's weapons programme. The findings also underline the difficulty of tracking revenue streams that move through labour placements rather than conventional trade or finance channels.

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The monitoring team was created after Russia used its veto in the UN Security Council to end a panel of experts that had tracked North Korea sanctions compliance. The new coalition was set up to continue that work and to document ways in which sanctions are being bypassed. The report says the labour network remains active despite years of international pressure.

What remains unclear from the report is the exact breakdown of the money by country and how much of the labour force is still operating in each location. It is also not clear what immediate enforcement steps, if any, will follow the findings. The report is likely to intensify scrutiny of countries suspected of hosting North Korean workers and of the channels used to move the proceeds back to Pyongyang.

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