North Korean Women Head to Russian Factories While Men Are Sent to the Battlefield

[Anchor]

Circumstances indicating that North Korea is dispatching a large number of female workers to Russia are being confirmed one after another. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president claimed that North Korea will additionally deploy up to 50,000 troops to the war in Ukraine. In effect, young North Korean women are being sent to Russian factories, while young men are being sent to the Russian battlefields.

Reporter Kim Ayeong.

[Reporter]

This is a photo released yesterday (August 9) by the Telegram channel of the Russian media outlet Ostorozhno Novosti.

Those wearing matching white clothes, carrying black luggage bags and backpacks, are North Korean female workers.

The outlet reported that North Korean female workers are being sent to production sites across Russia through employment agencies, and that the fields they are deployed to include assembly production processes, food manufacturing, and the garment industry.

It stated that they work in groups of 40, and their wage level is about 480 rubles per hour, which is equivalent to around 8,000 won in South Korean currency.

Videos estimated to show North Korean women working in the logistics warehouses of a Russian e-commerce company are also being released through local media and social media.

[People here with us are workers from North Korea. They are replacing local labor.]

It has been estimated that the scale of North Korean workers dispatched to Russia since the war in Ukraine is about 30,000, and it is analyzed that a significant portion of the role of earning foreign currency in industrial sites falls on female workers.

[Doo Jin-ho, Director of the Eurasia Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy: As troop mobilization and population decline overlap, Russia is facing a severe labor shortage. Recently, the deployment of North Korean female workers to civilian rear-guard industries has also been on the rise.]

Young North Korean men are being deployed to the battlefield.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy claimed yesterday that North Korea has decided to send between 30,000 and up to 50,000 troops to Russia, emphasizing the need for cooperation with South Korea.

Amid the prolonged war in Ukraine, the close ties between North Korea and Russia are expanding across all directions.

(Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.