Almost all of the 11,490 North Koreans reported to have been working in Russia last year have now been repatriated in compliance with UN sanctions, a senior Russian diplomat told media on Wednesday.

Responding to a question from the Interfax news agency, Pyotr Ilyichev — who heads the Russian foreign ministry’s Department of International Organizations — insisted that Russia was in keeping with its requirements under UNSC Resolution 2397.

“If [DPRK] citizens stopped receiving income and their contracts were up before December… they either all left or will soon,” he told Interfax.

Should there be any North Korean workers remaining