Hundreds of North Korean nationals entered Russia in the first half of 2023, official statistics show, surging from last year in a development that one expert tied to increasing economic and military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

According to immigration statistics published by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), 370 North Koreans entered Russia in the first six months of 2023, a dramatic increase from the 44 DPRK nationals who entered the country during the same period last year. Only 69 North Koreans crossed into Russia in all of 2021.

The majority of North Koreans who entered Russia in the first half of this year did so for “business purposes” (148), followed by nationals who entered to transit to another country (76) and a small number for private reasons (54), according to the FSB.

Notably, the data shows that most of the North Koreans entered Russia between January and July this year by airplane. However, direct flights from the DPRK to Russia only restarted in August, suggesting that the North Koreans did not travel directly to Russia from their own country but rather from a third country.

Meanwhile, 108 DPRK citizens entered Russia by car and none by train, according to the FSB. 

“The sudden increase points to growing economic and munitions-related cooperation,” Peter Ward, an expert on the North Korean economy and NK Pro contributor told NK News.

Ward assessed that a “fair number of officials” likely traveled to Russia for “visits related to economic and political” collaboration, while a “small number” could be workers.

The uptick in North Koreans traveling to Russia comes as Russian officials have indicated this year that they would welcome DPRK laborers.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnulin estimated last year that the country could employ 20,000-50,000 North Korean workers for construction projects, including in the Russian Far East.

Similarly, North Korean authorities have signaled plans to dispatch DPRK construction workers to the Ukrainian breakaway republic of Donetsk as soon as the country lifts pandemic border restrictions. 

Luhansk, another Ukrainian separatist republic, has also openly considered the possibility of using North Korean laborers to rebuild local infrastructure destroyed by the ongoing conflict in Donbas.

In early September, the Russian ministry of industry and trade sent a survey to local metallurgic and construction companies asking how many North Korean workers such enterprises potentially need, according to the BBC Russian Service. 

The ministry reportedly withdrew its survey the next day, urging companies to deem it “invalid” and stating that the poll contained “incorrect information.”

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2397 passed in 2017 banned all North Korean nationals from earning income in other member states from Dec. 2019.

Moscow’s foreign ministry claimed that only around a thousand DPRK workers were staying in Russia as of Jan. 2020 without engaging in paid work, while the majority of North Korean laborers had returned to their country.

Russia’s top envoy to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora stated that not a single North Korean with a valid work visa was still in Russia in early 2020.

But NK Pro analysis showed that while Russia cut down on issuing work visas and repatriated some DPRK laborers, it also increased the number of tourist and student visas for North Korean nationals soon after the ban entered into force.

Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, has estimated that around 10,000 DPRK nationals resided in Russia during the pandemic.

For now, Moscow appears unwilling to openly violate DPRK sanctions when it comes to employing North Korean laborers.

The Russian media outlet Octagon recently reported on a North Korean entrepreneur in Russia who has complained about his inability to hire DPRK laborers for construction projects in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. 

The businessman had reportedly counted on the potential influx of his fellow countrymen when starting his company but grew discouraged when Russian authorities proved lukewarm about welcoming DPRK migrant workers. 

Edited by Bryan Betts