North Korea sends thousands of workers to Russian drone factory, CSIS says
The country has reportedly sent up to 12,000 workers and technicians to Russia's Alabuga drone factory, helping produce Iran-designed Geran suicide drones and gain weapons expertise, according to CSIS.
A satellite image shows the Alabuga drone factory in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, where the city is also known as Yelabuga.
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North Korea has reportedly sent thousands of workers to a drone factory in Russia, a move helping the regime earn foreign currency and acquire advanced weapons technology.
North Korea, China, Russia and Iran are accused of supporting operations of the Alabuga industrial complex in the Russian town of Yelabuga — capable of manufacturing more than 5,500 drones monthly, a report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies on Wednesday said.
The report noted that the converging interests of the four pro-Russian countries “enabled gross and blatant human rights violations.”
It also noted that Russia upgraded variants of the Iran-designed Shahed suicide drone — remodeled as “Geran” — at the Alabuga factory with a considerable North Korean workforce. China was identified as an “indirect financier” that moves money to Russia through sanction-resistant payment networks.
As many as 12,000 North Korean laborers and technicians dispatched by Pyongyang constitute one of three main pillars of the Alabuga workforce, according to Ukrainian defense intelligence estimates cited in the report. The report also suggested that the North Korean regime confiscates 70 to 90 percent of the workers' wages.
The drone factory reportedly relies on thousands of Russian youths and some 200 migrant workers from Africa and other parts of the Global South for production and assembly.
“North Korean labor also transfers technical skill,” the report said.
“Technicians sent to Alabuga will return to Pyongyang with invaluable lessons from working at a mass-production drone assembly line, having observed Russian refinements to the constantly improving Geran drones. A North Korea with a more sophisticated and growing drone program poses a new order of military challenge for South Korea, Japan, and U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
