The Los Angeles Times says China is quietly inviting tens of thousands of North Korean workers into the country so that their earnings can help prop up the North Korean regime.

Quoting experts on North Korea, the U.S. daily reported on Monday that China and North Korea signed a labor deal that would allow about 40-thousand North Korean seamstresses, technicians, mechanics, construction workers and miners to work in China on industrial training visas.

The report said that the deal has not been publicly announced by either Beijing or Pyongyang.

The daily said that the North Korean workers will be allowed to keep about 50 U.S. dollars out of their monthly salaries of 200 to 300 dollars, with the rest remitted to the North Korean government.

Chinese labor experts said that it is unprecedented for China to issue work visas to inexperienced workers.