Russia issued over 36,000 visas to North Koreans in 2025, almost all for education

North Korean students in Pyongyang, October 2016 / Courtesy of NK News

Russia granted more than 36,000 entry visas to North Koreans in 2025, according to new consular data, amid the allies’ flourishing cooperation over the war in Ukraine.

The data released on Wednesday shows that Russia’s diplomatic missions issued North Korean nationals a total of 36,413 visas, a fourfold increase from 9,239 visas in 2024.

Over 98 percent, or 35,839 visas, were for education, compared with 8,616 the year before. An NK Pro investigation previously uncovered how Russian firms use student visas to procure North Korean workers. Such visas are typically arranged through educational institutions under the pretense of professional training, while Russian businesses actually employ the workers.

The scheme helps Russian entrepreneurs bypass U.N. Security Council Resolution 2375, which bans North Korean workers from earning income abroad and prohibits member states from issuing them work permits.

The official data for last year does not record any work visas for North Koreans. The last time Russia said it issued such a visa to North Korean nationals was in 2019, before a U.N. deadline to repatriate overseas North Korean workers.

By category, Russia issued 266 humanitarian, 150 transit, 72 tourist visas, 47 business and six private visas to North Koreans in 2025. It also issued 33 visas for “service,” an unclear category distinct from diplomats.

The nearly 36,000 education visas for North Koreans contrasts sharply with just 367 student visas issued to South Korean citizens last year.

Chris Monday, a Russia specialist at Dongseo University, said the figures do not represent students but laborers traveling to Russia en masse.

“There is no doubt that the number of North Korean workers has drastically increased,” he told NK News, assessing that the 36,000 figure is “surely an undercount.”

While most of the North Koreans’ visas were processed by the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang, 12 of them were issued by the country’s consulate in Chongjin, according to the data.

More North Korean citizens appear to have made use of Russian electronic visas in 2025, a separate consular dataset showed.

Russia issued a total of 710 e-visas to North Koreans, with 635 actually entering the country last year. This marks a sharp uptick from just 37 e-visas and 27 entries recorded in 2024. Only one e-visa was processed in the North Korea in 2023, when Russia introduced the service.

Russian consular services also issued 88 e-visas in the first two months of 2026, according to the data.

A report by Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights recently found that multiple North Korean and Russian firms have been arranging for large numbers of North Koreans to work in Russia in recent years, warning that they are often subjected to inhumane treatment, long hours and severe wage deductions.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights has also reported that many North Korean guest workers face slavery-like conditions in Russia, while NK News has documented numerous cases of North Korean laborers performing paid work in the country in violation of sanctions.

North Korea and Russia have ramped up military and economic ties since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, with Pyongyang deploying troops to the conflict and sending workers to address Russia’s war-induced labor shortages.

Amid growing attention on bilateral ties, Russia stopped publishing data on North Korean entries starting in Q2 2025. In 2024, Russia recorded a total of 13,221 North Korean nationals crossing the border, with 7,887 of them registered as traveling for education.

Read the article at NK News.