Russia recruiting up to 25,000 North Koreans to assemble drones: What the data shows

According to a report by the UN Security Council's Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), between 15,000 and 30,000 North Korean workers were present in Russia at the end of 2025. Up to 1,000 of them were employed at strategically important facilities, including defence plants, steelworks and shipbuilding capacities. The Ukrainian outlet "Ukrainska Pravda" also confirmed that up to 25,000 North Korean citizens are working on drone production in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, where Russian versions of Iran's Shahed drone are assembled. Radio Liberty cites similar data, noting that North Koreans are registered as "students" in order to bypass UN sanctions that prohibit the use of DPRK labour abroad.