Syria invited at least 800 North Korean military personnel and laborers to work in the country in the second half of 2019, according to an unpublished United Nations Panel of Experts report seen by NK News.

The invitations to work abroad came in spite of U.N. sanctions forbidding the DPRK from providing foreign military assistance, as well as a U.N. order requiring all overseas North Korean workers to be repatriated before Dec. 22, 2019.