North Koreans in Russia

[2] Aside from North Korean citizens living in Russia, there has also historically been significant migration from the northern provinces of Korea, especially Hamgyong, to the Russian Far East; this population of migrants became known as the Koryo-saram.

[7] In the late 1940s, roughly 9,000 North Korean migrant workers were recruited by the Soviet government to work in state-owned fisheries on Sakhalin.

The second wave began in 1966 or 1967 under a secret agreement between Leonid Brezhnev and Kim Il Sung in Vladivostok, which involved North Koreans working as lumberjacks.

[10] However, the most recent influx of North Korean workers, which began under the government of Vladimir Putin, is composed of volunteers seeking to escape unemployment and poverty at home.

They are closely monitored by North Korean security forces to prevent defections; many report being paid in scrip rather than legal currency.

[12] In 2010, reports came out from Nakhodka indicating that North Korean workers and traders there had been evacuated back to their home country due to rising military tensions with South Korea.

It is believed that North Korea ordered the assassination of South Korean consul Choi Duk-gun in 1996 as well as two private citizens in 1995, in response to their contact with the refugees.

In 2003, Sergey Darkin, the Governor of Primorsky Krai, suggested allowing up to 150,000 North Korean refugees in China to settle in Russia, but his plan never came to fruition.