Russian Labour Shortage Fix: North Korea’s Slave Export Program
Hello everyone. Strap in, because this is not going to be some dainty little tea-time chat about policy nuances and international cooperation. Oh no, today we’re dissecting one of the most grotesque political symbioses this side of a dystopian strategy game – Russia outsourcing its labour shortage to North Korea like it’s hiring mercenaries in Civilization VI, except instead of musketmen you get starving construction slaves. It’s almost admirable in the way you admire a particularly nasty parasite: a mix of horror and grudging acknowledgment at its efficiency.
Slave Labour as Policy – Because Why Not?
So, as if waging war in Ukraine wasn’t chewing through enough resources, soldiers, and international credibility, Russia now has to patch a massive labour shortage. And it’s doing so with the subtlety of a pickaxe to the face: importing thousands of workers from North Korea, straight into dangerous, soul-breaking construction jobs. The BBC reports 18+ hour workdays, two days off a year. It’s not a job anymore – it’s a raid boss, except the boss is frostbite and chronic malnutrition, and the loot drop is the sweet release of sleep.
The testimonies from escapees are like a horror novel dictated by a Soviet-era industrial accountant. Waking at 6 a.m., working until 2 a.m., living in bug-infested shipping containers or unfinished shells of buildings – because apparently heating and beds are luxuries reserved for people not held hostage by two authoritarian regimes. If gaming taught me one thing, those conditions are basically the “Nightmare” difficulty setting, minus the respawn.
Prison Without Bars
One worker said it best: “I felt like I was in a labour camp; a prison without bars.” That line should be framed in the Kremlin’s break room. These people aren’t just unpaid – they’re underpaid in the most insulting way imaginable. Between $100 and $200 a month, if they’re lucky, and only disbursed after they return to North Korea. Which, spoiler alert, they might not survive to do. The rest is neatly siphoned off to Kim Jong Un’s piggy bank to keep building nuclear toys and majestic statues of himself.
Let’s pause for a quick medical reference here: if this arrangement were a disease, it’d be a cross between parasitic infestation and terminal moral bankruptcy. Unfortunately, there’s no antibiotic for this level of geopolitical rot.
Sanctions? What Sanctions?
Remember when the UN, back in 2019, told the world “no more North Korean slave exports” as part of sanctions? Russia heard “no more” the way a caffeine addict hears “maybe cut back.” In 2024 alone, over 13,000 North Koreans waltzed in, many on “student visas” – presumably to study advanced techniques in concrete mixing and trench digging. This isn’t even a subtle loophole; it’s the diplomatic equivalent of speedrunning your way through a broken RPG quest line by clipping through the wall.
Crackdowns and Control
The sheer paranoia here would make even a conspiracy theorist nod approvingly. Workers are watched constantly by North Korean state security agents. Outings have been reduced to zero. Ideological training and self-criticism sessions keep them demoralised, like forced political patch notes for human beings. Travel is in groups of five under surveillance – because nothing says “trusted workforce” like treating every bricklayer like an undercover spy.
The Perfect Authoritarian Bromance
Experts are already calling this scheme the “lasting legacy” of Kim-Putin wartime friendship. It’s the oppressive state version of co-op campaign mode – one provides the disposable workers, the other provides the battlefields that create the shortage in the first place. Everyone wins… except every single person on the actual frontline, construction or otherwise.
Conclusion
This isn’t just bad policy – it’s a vile system propped up by two regimes perfectly comfortable turning human beings into literally disposable assets. It’s anti-human, anti-decency, and yet strangely efficient in a way that makes your stomach churn. The only real suspense left is how long they can keep this racket going before more workers find a way to escape, or the international community pretends to care enough to intervene realistically. But given the track record, I wouldn’t bet your last ration voucher on it.
My verdict? Utterly, irredeemably bad. A scheme so morally bankrupt it should come with its own foreclosure notice from the universe.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: North Koreans tell BBC they are being sent to work ‘like slaves’ in Russia, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2077gwjlvxo
