North Koreans in Russia
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 10,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Russian Far East | |
| Languages | |
| Korean, Russian | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Koryo-saram |
North Koreans in Russia consist mainly of three groups: international students, guest workers, and defectors and refugees. A 2006 study by Kyung Hee University estimated their total population at roughly 10,000.
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. 65% of the Sakhalin Koreans also took up North Korean citizenship in the 1950s and 1960s in order to avoid statelessness; roughly one thousand even repatriated to North Korea, though their ancestral homes were in the southern half of the Korean peninsula. In addition, various senior members of the Workers' Party of Korea, including Kim Il-sung himself, lived in Russia prior to Korean independence and the establishment of North Korea.
During the post-Korean War reconstruction period of North Korea from 1953 to 1962, many North Korean students enrolled in universities and colleges in countries of the Soviet bloc, including Russia, and others came as industrial trainees.
In the late 1940s, roughly 8,000 North Korean migrant workers were recruited by the Soviet government to work in state-owned fisheries on Sakhalin. Another 25,000 workers also came to work in fisheries during the 1950s. The second wave, which began in 1966 or 1967 under a secret agreement between Leonid Brezhnev and Kim Il-sung in Vladivostok, involved North Koreans working as lumberjacks. Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 were present in any given year. The first two waves consisted mostly of criminals or political prisoners.
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