A Japanese daily reports that the number of North Korean people working in the far eastern region of Russia has jumped more than five-thousand since last year.

The Asahi Shimbun said that some three-thousand North Koreans are working in Vladivostok to build roads and a convention center for an APEC summit meeting, which will be held in the Russian city next September.

North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Trade agreed with Russia in October this year to send North Korean workers to Russia’s Amur region for the construction of a hydropower plant and railways while the North rents land in the same area for farming.

North Korean people are working at logging and lumbering sites in Khabarovsk, a city along the Amur River.