3,700 North Koreans arrive in Russia. But are they students?

Thousands of students from North Korea have arrived in Russia over a period of three months, according to official Russian figures.

Despite suspicions from some diplomatic and military quarters that some may have military roles, experts said the arrival of such large numbers dates back to an agreement signed in April this year by the education ministers of North Korea and Russia.

More than 3,700 North Korean citizens entered Russia between July and September for studies, according to data from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and first reported last week by Russian-language news outlet Mediazona, which described it as a record number and a huge jump from the 130 North Korean students in Russia last year.

In pre-COVID 2019 around 3,200 North Koreans arrived in Russia for studies over the entire year, but the July to September figures represent a 10-fold rise over the previous quarter of this year when 332 North Koreans officially entered Russia for the purpose of study,

During his meeting in April with North Korea’s education minister, Russia’s Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov said more than 100 applications from North Korea had been submitted for the new academic year to Russian universities.

10-fold increase

This was clearly just the start of a much bigger trend, diplomats and others have said.

“It’s a dramatic increase, and personally, I’m not sure whether we are really talking [about] students,” said Andrei Lankov, professor of history and international relations at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea and an expert on Korea-Russia relations.

“I will be surprised if they’re real students, but if they’re real students, it’s a really massive number,” he noted.

Some of the ‘students’ may be “people who are using the student visas as a disguise for being employed as a worker. Russia is not really going to follow the United Nations Security Council resolutions, one of which bans the use of the North Korean workers”, Lankov told University World News.

“It is not certain that they are talking about real students or construction and other manual workers disguised as students to justify their presence [in Russia] without violating the UN Security Council resolutions,” said Lankov.

Diplomats said Russia was in need of labour because so many Russian men were sent to fight in the war against Ukraine.

The UN resolution 2397, passed in November 2017, bans the hiring and paying of North Korean workers overseas, on the basis that the Pyongyang regime uses the foreign currency earnings of its workers abroad to fund its nuclear and missile programmes.

All UN member states were required to repatriate North Korean workers by the end of 2019. However, students are not subject to the UN resolution. At the end of March, Russia notably vetoed an extension of the UN panel that monitors compliance with the sanctions.

North Korean troops

The student arrivals coincide with revelations in recent weeks of North Korean troops being sent to Russia to fight against Ukraine, prompting speculation that some of the ‘student’ visas may be for soldiers or for North Koreans in military support roles.

According to reports emerging in early October, thousands of North Korean soldiers entered Russia to fight against Ukraine, but Lankov said even if some were entering as students, the number of student visas was too few compared to the figures on North Korean troops.

At the end of October, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that around 8,000 North Korean soldiers were already stationed in Russia’s Kursk region. Kyiv estimated that as many as 11,000-12,000 North Korean soldiers had reached the Kursk region and had already entered combat.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, citing intelligence, claimed the first North Korean troops arrived in Russia during the period 8 to 13 October.

If there are 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, “where are the other 9,000” coming in as students? Lankov asked, noting the much larger numbers of troops.

Funding of students

Sources said North Korea and Russia earlier this year reached an agreement on funding the North Korea students’ studies in Russia, as North Korea itself did not have the means to pay, and universities in Russia would expect to have their costs per student covered.

“My understanding is that it can be done by some government funds from the Russian side, which will be a part of all current trade and exchanges of civilian – not military – equipment, or by the North Korean side,” Lankov said.

“Most likely, I would expect the Russian government to [provide] some funding [for education],” he added.

What the North Korean students study in Russia will not be their own choice, said Lankov. “It will be decisions made by the North Korean government, with some marginal participation of the Russian government. And it will be related to science and technology and areas which are important to the [North Korean] economy,” he explained.

These include subjects related to agriculture, mining, civil engineering, all kinds of military engineering, iron and steel and alloy production, energy, energy transmission, and computers, he said.

By contrast, five Russian university students from Moscow State Institute of International Relations arrived in North Korea in August for a language programme, marking the first time in four years that Russian students have been in North Korea, according to Yonhap.

They will participate in a language programme at Kim Il Sung University, the Russian Embassy in Seoul said in August.