Nearly 1,200 North Koreans living in the country wedged between Russia and China must now pack their bags as Mongolia enforces tough United Nations sanctions severely curbing trade with Pyongyang.

The UN estimated in September that 100,000 North Koreans work abroad and send some USD 500 million in wages back to the authoritarian regime each year. But the UN Security Council ordered nations to stop providing guest worker permits to North Koreans after Pyongyang detonated its most powerful nuclear bomb.The US is now pushing for more sanctions after the regime tested another intercontinental ballistic missile in late November.

North Koreans have to leave Mongolia by the end of the year as their one-year work authorisations will not be renewed, the labour ministry said. “Private entities will not be able to offer new contracts due to the UN resolution. Mongolia has been following every part of the resolution,” Sh.Odonbaatar, a Mongolian foreign ministry official, said.

The number of North Koreans working in Mongolia has dropped every year since peaking at 2,123 in 2013. There were 1,190 North Koreans employed in the vast country of three million people as of November – often under murky work and living conditions.

In Mongolia, construction companies have hired North Koreans for their reputation for working long hours without complaint. In September, a 27-year-old North Korean worker died after falling from a flat in a residential complex under construction in Ulaanbaatar.