Many North Koreans, reportedly numbering in the thousands, were sent to Russia and are working in "slave-like conditions," South Korean officials told the BBC in a report on Tuesday, while also receiving further confirmations in interviews from six North Korean laborers who fled the country.
South Korean officials are reportedly trying to help rescue their northern counterparts currently based in Russia.
According to the report, Moscow is facing "labor shortages" caused by their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, to which they've reached out to Pyongyang for military support.
The interviewees had changed their names in the BBC report to protect their identity. One worker told the British public service broadcaster that he was chaperoned from the airport to a construction site in far-eastern Russia by a North Korean security agent, where he worked 18 hours a day with only two days off per year.
Beaten and left in horrible living conditions
Another worker said that their supervisors would "find them and beat them" if any worker left their post early to rest from their 18-hour days.
Those that escaped also told the BBC that they are overseen by North Korea's state security department agents, adding that they slept in bug-infested, overcrowded shipping containers, or on the floor of unfinished apartment blocks.
Another worker said that his supervisors wouldn't allow him to check into a hospital after he gravely injured his face after falling four meters.