Editor’s note: This is the second article in a three-part series on North Korea’s overseas laborers. Part 1 can be read here.

North Korea is estimated to earn as much as $500 million from its overseas workers annually, despite U.N. Security Council sanctions banning such labor exports since 2019. But the reasons countries continue to accept DPRK labor migrants vary widely from place to place.

NK Pro analysis suggests that some countries in Africa and Southeast Asia have limited capacity to enforce sanctions, especially in poorer parts of the world where much of the economy