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(Image: GETTY/DENIS SINYAKOV)

Norwegian football magazine Josimar reports that at least 110 North Koreans have been put to work at one venue.

The venue, St Petersburg's Zenit Arena, is a totally new build, replacing the Soviet-era Kirov Stadium.

And according to one source on-site, building it is netting a fortune for Kim Jong-un's regime.

(Image: DENIS SINYAKOV)

Pavel, a project manager with one of many construction firms on site, said he himself was offered 100 skilled North Korean workers by a middleman.

They would work round the clock, the middleman said, for six millions roubles (£85,000) – two thirds of which would be sent back to Pyongyang.

The workers themselves – who've been described as "slaves" by researchers – would get just 600 (£8.50) roubles a day from the remainder.

And though he says he turned the middleman down because he was fully staffed, he claims many North Koreans are working on the site.

He told Josimar these workers start their day early and finish late, and lived in storage containers in a fenced-in area outside the stadium.

In November, Russian media said one North Korean had died there, with local police saying he was killed by a heart attack.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said: "People told me he was found in one the containers they live in."

Another migrant worker, 50-year-old Alsher from Uzbekistan, told the magazine he believed there were North Koreans working there.

(Image: DENIS SINYAKOV)

"I believe they were North Koreans," he said. "I can’t be certain. I didn’t talk to them. They kept to themselves."

When Josimar raised the prospect of Russian cash being used for North Korea's nuclear programme, a FIFA spokesperson called the claim "outrageous".

They said: "FIFA condemns any human rights violations and, if identified, would not tolerate such conditions on any of the FIFA World Cup stadium construction sites.

"Lastly, the link you make between North Korean migrant workers in Russia and FIFA contributing to the nuclear weapons programme in their home country is, to say the least, far-fetched and outrageous."

Vitaly Mutko from the 2018 World Cup organising committee was also contacted – he's the deputy Prime Minister of Russia and a former Minister of Sport.

In response to a question about North Koreans at the Zenit Stadium, a response from the committee said there were "only [a] few workers" from there.

"As far as we are aware there were only few workers from North Korea and they performed finishing works during a short period of time," the reply said.

Signe Poulsen, who heads up the UN office in Seoul, South Korea, told Daily Star Online that North Korean workers overseas often had to give up their pay as "voluntary loyalty" donations.