In the third quarter of 2024, more than 3.7 thousand DPRK residents who indicated the purpose of their trip as “study” entered Russia. This follows from the data of the FSB Border Service, to which “Mediazona” drew attention.
According to the border guards’ data, from July through September, 3,765 DPRK citizens came to the Russian Federation to study. The publication calls this number of North Koreans who entered Russia to study a record.
For the entire pre-Korean year of 2019, 3.2 thousand people entered Russia from the DPRK, who indicated the purpose of their trip as study.
“Mediazone” notes that the number of quotas for North Korean students in Russia remains low. According to the Russian authorities, about 130 students from the DPRK were studying in Russia in April 2024. Valery Falkov, head of the Russian Ministry of Education, said at the time that for the next academic year, more than 100 applications for students to study in Russian universities had been received from the DPRK.
The growth in the number of students from the DPRK occurred against the background of reports about the dispatch of North Korean military personnel to Russia.