Joint Statement of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) on the Report Covering the DPRK's Overseas Labour Program

Several countries gave a joint statement following the publication of the latest report of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT).

The Governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America gave a statement following the publication of the latest report of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT):

We, the participating states of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), have released a report today on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) violations and evasions of United Nations Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs) through the ongoing overseas deployment of North Korean labourers. The MSMT is a multilateral mechanism established in October 2024 to monitor and report on the implementation of UN sanctions measures relating to the DPRK. The report is available on the official MSMT website.

This report details the systemic evasion of UN sanctions by the DPRK and other countries through a global network of unlawful overseas labour, prohibited by UNSCRs 2375 and 2397. The report consolidates information provided by MSMT participating states and open-source information to show how the DPRK continues to deploy an estimated 35,600 to 101,280 labourers, nearly all of whom are located in the People’s Republic of China and Russian Federation.

Despite the 2019 repatriation deadline mandated by UNSCR 2397, at least 17 countries are suspected of continuing to host labourers, generating between US $450 million and $800 million in 2025 to fund the DPRK’s unlawful nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The report highlights that nearly all of the wages earned by overseas North Korean labourers are confiscated by the DPRK.