Milan, 12 August (LaPresse) – According to the British broadcaster BBC, thousands of North Koreans are being sent to work in slave-like conditions in Russia to fill a huge labour shortage, exacerbated by the current conflict in Ukraine. Now that many Russian men have been killed or wounded in the fighting, or have fled the country, South Korean intelligence officials have told the BBC that Moscow is increasingly relying on North Korean workers. All six workers the British broadcaster spoke to described the same gruelling working days: waking up at 6 a.m. and being forced to build apartments in skyscrapers until 2 a.m. the following morning, with only two days off per year. ‘Some left their posts to sleep during the day or fell asleep standing up, but the supervisors found them and beat them. It was really like we were dying,’ one worker said. Those who managed to escape said that workers are confined to construction sites day and night, guarded by agents from North Korea's State Security Department. They sleep in dirty, overcrowded containers infested with insects, or on the floors of buildings under construction, with tarpaulins pulled over the door frames to try to shelter from the cold.
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