Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that workers in North Korea have been sent to Russia to provide overseas labour contrary to the sanctions imposed under UN Security Council Resolution 2375 (2017); what assessment they have made of how such workers are selected; and what plans they have to raise this issue at the UN Security Council.

The UK government has been very clear that international law must be upheld, and that UN sanctions put in place to combat North Korea's illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programmes must be fully enforced. The UN Panel of Experts have reported that North Korean overseas workers continue to be present in member states despite the passing of the repatriation deadline in December 2019. We fully agree with the panel's assessment and continue to raise our concerns with the members of the Security Council in New York, including Russia, most recently on 24 February. The UK has not made an independent assessment of how such workers are selected. The UK calls for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.