North Korean workers treated as slaves at Russian drone factory
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The gist
A CSIS–Bush Institute report says up to 12,000 North Koreans work at Russia's Yelabuga drone plant under state-controlled labor.
The report says the arrangement also hands Pyongyang drone-assembly know-how.
Background
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington policy institute, and the Dallas-based George W. Bush Institute published the joint report on October 14. It examines the Yelabuga plant in Russia's Tatarstan region, where Russia, North Korea, China and Iran are involved in expanding drone production. The report says the arrangement defies UN Security Council Resolution 2397 of December 2017, which requires member states to send North Korean workers home within two years, and extends a longstanding system of North Korean overseas labor in factories, logging camps and construction sites.
How it unfolded
- Nov 2025Ukrainian military intelligence announced a plan to recruit roughly 12,000 North Koreans by year-end, with proposed pay of about $2.50 an hour for shifts of at least 12 hours.
- early 2026Foreign workers at Alabuga reported seeing North Korean workers beginning in early 2026, according to researcher Jaewoo Park's investigation.
- Oct 14, 2026CSIS and the George W. Bush Institute published the joint report "Human Rights Abuses in Drone Production at Yelabuga."
- Oct 15, 2026Aju Press reported the findings on North Korean workers gaining drone-making experience in Russia.
- Oct 20, 2026UPI reported Park's investigation identifying North Korean workers at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, and DW reported on the joint report citing up to 12,000 North Koreans at a Russian drone factory.
- Oct 21, 2026Entrevue.fr reported on the joint report accusing Moscow and Pyongyang.
Who’s saying what
- Report authors
- CSIS and the Bush Institute say Pyongyang is selling its citizens' labor under a state-to-state arrangement, controlling whether they may leave and collecting most of their wages, which they call the definition of forced labor.
- Expert
- Song Young-Chae, a Seoul-based academic and human rights activist, says Pyongyang is effectively conducting slavery of its own people for its own profit, and that the practice extends beyond Yelabuga to occupied Ukrainian territories, lumber camps and soldiers sent to the front.
- Analysts
- Dan Pinkston of Troy University's Seoul campus says the geography of the four countries makes any international interdiction impossible and that the UN sanctions regime is pretty much dead.
- Analysts
- Victor Cha of CSIS and Joseph Kim of the Bush Institute say the labor also transfers technical know-how, with technicians returning to Pyongyang with lessons from the mass-production drone assembly line.
Still unverified
The figure of up to 12,000 North Koreans at Alabuga stems from a Ukrainian military intelligence announcement in November 2025 describing a recruitment plan, not a verified count of workers present; UPI reports that the workers' involvement in drone manufacturing has not been established, and one source reported occasionally observing at least 100 North Koreans at the facilities.