North Koreans trapped in Russia in a 'state slavery'

SEOUL, South Korea - For more than three decades, North Korea has sent workers abroad to earn money for its regime.

These workers have toiled in logging camps in Russia, factories and restaurants in China, and farms and shipyards in Eastern Europe.

They have sweated on construction sites in the Middle East and worked as doctors in African hospitals.

A North Korean worker at the entrance to a restaurant in one of China's largest Korean cities, in Shenyang, in March.

Photo Jade Gao/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

They have left their children or parents hostage, with their

for fear they would flee to South Korea.

Under Northern leader

the number of workers sent abroad to raise money for the regime rose to tens of thousands, earning billions of dollars a year, according to South Korean estimates.

A UN

resolution required countries to expel the workers before the end of 2019.

But thousands still remain in China and Russia, according to former workers and a new report on human rights in North Korea released by the South's Ministry of Unification over the weekend.

With borders closed during the pandemic, many have been trapped, with no choice but to continue working for their government.

China and Russia, which have tried to make the North a more useful partner in their rivalry with the United States, have become loopholes in the implementation of the UN ban, helping the North earn much-needed money while dealing with the consequences of

and the pandemic.

On Thursday, the White House also accused Moscow of discussing a deal in which Pyongyang would send weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine in exchange for food and other basic goods.

"North Korea has found various ways to circumvent sanctions and continue to send workers to Russia and China, including sending them on

," the report said.

Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean website, called the new report "slander and fabrication."

The report was based on a survey of more than 500 North Koreans who defected to South Korea between 2017 and 2022, providing one of the most up-to-date assessments of the human rights conditions of North Koreans, including those working abroad.

It did not reveal the identities of those who participated in the survey.

But two North Koreans who worked in Russia before defecting to the South last year confirmed key details in interviews with

The defectors spoke on condition of anonymity for fear that North Korean authorities would find their relatives back home and retaliate against them.

One of the defectors, 50, worked as a construction laborer in Moscow from 2017 until last year.

He and his companions lived in shipping containers under construction or on the ground floor of apartment buildings still under construction.

They were given advance notice of the arrival of local

for inspections so they could hide, he said.

Workers were required to earn between $7,000 and $10,000 a year for their government.

They also had to make various "loyalty" donations, including contributing to funds supposedly raised to renovate the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum in Pyongyang where Kim's father and grandfather lie.

Supervisors kept workers' earnings until it was time for them to return home, giving them just

($38) a month to buy cigarettes, said a 41-year-old deserter who worked in construction in Sakhalin. , an island in the Russian Far East.

After working for years, many of these workers are left broke with no savings.

Others take home between $20,000 and $30,000, an amount unimaginable in the famine-stricken North.

North Koreans are not free to travel abroad.

The monthly salary of an average worker, barely 25 cents, can barely pay for a kilo of rice.

The Unification Ministry report also cited widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including the

of people accused of trying to cross the border into China during the pandemic.

Privilege

Working abroad has become such a coveted privilege that bribes are often paid to officials throughout the recruitment process.

Workers also bribe supervisors to

their stay instead of being sent home.

For the Kim regime, increasingly in need of hard currency while diverting resources to a growing nuclear arsenal, these workers are a crucial source of

Before sending them abroad, the government carefully scrutinizes each person's political allegiance.

Persons with family members who have defected to the South are not eligible.

So are people who have served in submarine and missile units with access to sensitive information.

Political watchdogs follow workers abroad, inspecting their letters for signs of disloyalty.

When they are allowed out of their dorms to go shopping, they have to go in groups of

so they can spy on each other.

Last week, South Korean President

vowed to reveal "all details" of the North's human rights violations as his government struggles to find a diplomatic foothold. to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

Human rights groups have compared the conditions faced by North Korean workers abroad to "state-sponsored slavery."

Still, there is still a huge backlog of North Koreans waiting to be sent abroad once the

are fully lifted , according to the two defectors.

A great incentive that workers have over their hungry compatriots is enough food.

They were also exposed to the Internet and watched South Korean dramas out of sight of their supervisors.

After a life in the totalitarian North, the 50-year-old defector said the smartphone he secretly bought while working abroad helped him realize that North Koreans lived like "frogs trapped in a deep well."

Now in Seoul, he is recovering from a recent cancer operation.

He said he wants to find construction work in the South so he can save enough money to help support his family.

His smartphone screensaver featured a photo of his smiling teenage daughter, who still lives in North Korea.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

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