North Koreans in Russia

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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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.^[2][4] 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.^[5][6]