Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries said it launched a pilot project to employ foreign laborers after videos surfaced online claiming to show North Korean workers at its Moscow region warehouse.
Earlier this week, two short videos of alleged North Korean workers wearing purple Wildberries suits appeared in the group chat for employees at the retailer’s warehouse in the town of Elektrostal, according to the Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram news channel.
“The company complies with the necessary requirements when working with employees from abroad as part of a pilot project,” the Moskva news agency quoted Wildberries’ press service as saying Tuesday.
“We’ll make a decision on scaling based on [the pilot project’s] results,” Wildberries added without directly addressing claims that workers in the video were from North Korea.
The RTVI broadcaster reported that unidentified Telegram channels claimed “hundreds” of North Korean nationals have been recently hired by Wildberries. The Moscow Times was unable to find where those claims had originated.
A 2017 UN Security Council resolution bans North Korean workers from earning income abroad.
In early 2020, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was unable to send North Korean workers back home in compliance with UN sanctions due to limited transportation options.
Another video released by authorities in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok earlier this month claimed to show North Koreans working at a local construction site, South Korean media reported Tuesday.
Last summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the UN ban on North Korean labor, asking “What kind of threat do labor migrants pose, and to whom?”
“When individuals are barred from working somewhere or their ability to earn a living is so restricted that they can’t feed their families, that’s strange,” Putin told journalists in an extended sit-down interview.
Since then, South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to Russia to support its fight against a surprise Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed the presence of North Korean forces in Russia. The two countries signed a defense pact last year.
South Korea’s spy agency claimed that North Korea continued sending “thousands” of laborers to Russia using student visas in 2024.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry data shows that more than 8,600 of the nearly 9,300 visas issued to North Korean citizens last year were student visas, according to the Mozhem Obyasnit Telegram news channel.
Russia’s Education Ministry said last year over 130 students from North Korea were studying in Russia.
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