U.S. State Department Urges China to Fully Enforce UN Sanctions Amid Surge in North Korean Workers Entering on Short-Term Stays and Trainee Visas

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern over reports of North Korean workers entering China through short-term visas, stating that such actions undermine the continuous implementation of United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

The reports indicate that around 1,000 North Korean workers entered China via the border city of Dandong in April 2026, arriving on short-stay visas to engage in labor at clothing, food processing and seafood facilities in Liaoning province. This movement is described as an unprecedented resumption of overseas labor deployment by North Korea, occurring amid warming bilateral ties between Pyongyang and Beijing.

According to a source with knowledge of cross-border movements cited by Daily NK, approximately 200 workers departed Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, by bus on April 12, 2026, crossing the Yalu River into Dandong, with an additional 100 to 200 workers entering daily between April 12 and 16, bringing the five-day total to roughly 1,000 individuals.

The U.S. State Department emphasized that it is monitoring China’s actions closely to ensure full and continuous implementation of UN sanctions, noting that the dispatch of North Korean workers is prohibited under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2397 adopted in 2017, which mandates the repatriation of all North Korean overseas workers.

While small numbers of North Korean workers have previously entered China through informal channels since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scale and consistency of the April 2026 influx — described as several hundred workers arriving on consecutive days — had not been observed before, according to the same source.

The U.S. Maintains that any appearance of episodic compliance with sanctions, followed by lapses, undermines the effectiveness of international pressure on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, and insists that sanctions must be implemented without interruption.