Russia Reduces Visa Duration for North Korean Workers to One Year

"We have cut it [the period] down to a year. If the visa ends, they leave, it's not a deportation… In this case, citizens did not commit any wrongdoing, it is simply the implementation of the resolution [of the UN Security Council]," Valentina Kazakova, deputy head of the ministry's General Administration for Migration Issues, told lawmakers at the lower house of the Russian parliament.

Kazakova added that Russian migration services receive a large number of applications for temporary asylum from North Korean citizens, but the Russian authorities will continue to strictly implement the UNSC resolution on sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

Earlier in February, the authorities of some Russian regions have started to deport North Korean employees in accordance with the UN Security Council's resolution on sanctions against Pyongyang.

US Efforts to Create 'Horror Atmosphere' Around North Korea Affect Russian Firms

7 February 2018, 04:54 GMT

On December 22, 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a US-drafted resolution to introduce new sanctions against North Korea over its continued ballistic missile tests, as tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high.

Multiple provisions in the resolution sanctioned North Korea's oil and petroleum industries. The resolution also called for the expulsion of all North Korean workers earning income abroad within 24 months and added 16 individuals and one entity connected to the financing and development of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs to the UN sanctions list.

Pyongyang rejected the new sanctions of the UN Security Council, considering them "an act of war," and stated that the DPRK would "further consolidate its self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US."