North Korean man 'sets himself on fire' in Russia after being sent to country for 'forced labour'

The man, who was not named in local reports, was found dead on New Year's Day

North Korea is believed to be sending thousands of labourers to Russia and other countries in what human rights groups have condemned as 'forced labour' (AFP/Getty Images)

A North Korean man forced to work in Russia has reportedly died after setting himself on fire in a car park.

The man, who was not publicly named, died in the southern city of Vladivostok, near the Chinese and North Korean borders.

Authorities told the Prima Media website that he had died after dousing himself with a flammable liquid and setting himself on fire next to a block of flats overnight on New Year’s Eve.

Footage posted on YouTube on 1 January appeared to show firefighters using a fire extinguisher on his corpse at the scene.

A suicide note in reportedly found at the scene said in Korean: “I'm tired of hard work every day. I blame nobody for my death,” according to a translation by Chosun Ilbo.

The South Korean newspaper reported that the man was working on a construction site in Russia, where North Korean workers are monitored by agents sent by Pyongyang and can work up to 16 hours a day.

Last year, the BBC reported that North Korean workers are kept in “guarded compounds” in Vladivostok, where one of the men told how they had “no choice” but to come and did not receive their salary.

Marzuki Darusman, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, has condemned the system of hiring North Korean workers in Russia and several other countries as “forced labour”, allowing Kim Jong-un’s government to earn billions of dollars in foreign currency.