VLADIVOSTOK, Russia—Wearing a Nike coat and an Adidas hat, a North Korean laborer waited with 60 compatriots to board a flight home from this city in Russia’s Far East.
After three years of construction work, the laborer, Mr. Ri, was returning with $600, after his pay was docked for missed work due to an injury. He said he would miss his life in Russia, where he enjoyed watching the South Korean news on his mobile phone—until his North Korean handlers confiscated it three months ago to deter defections.
“At least I’m taking back some money from Russia. I won’t receive anything working in Pyongyang,” Mr. Ri said.
Hundreds of North Korean laborers are streaming out of Russia every day, thinning out a workforce that once stood at 30,000. Only several thousand remain. On most days this month, North Korean airline Air Koryo flies twice from Vladivostok to Pyongyang, up from twice a week earlier this year.
The exodus was mandated in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council. Tightening sanctions in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Security Council barred countries from issuing new worker permits and said they would have to expel the regime’s workers within two years. That deadline arrives on Sunday.
The worker recall cuts one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s biggest remaining sources of legitimate revenue and poses a challenge to his isolated regime as nuclear talks with the U.S. stall.
Moscow promised to abide by the sanctions, as did China, which employs more of the Kim regime’s laborers than Russia does, according to experts.
China and Russia submitted this week a draft resolution to the Security Council that proposes lifting the ban on migrant workers and allowing some North Korean exports, but the U.S., which can veto resolutions, called it premature to consider sanctions relief, the State Department said.
Pyongyang’s overseas workforce once totaled more than 100,000 people, bringing earnings to the North Korean government of as much as $2 billion a year before sanctions were tightened, according to analysts.
Russia has hosted North Korean workers since the 1950s, longer than any other country.
In Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, construction sites once filled by the Kim regime’s overseas workforce are nearly empty, and Korean restaurants have shut down. The Wall Street Journal talked with more than a dozen North Korean laborers in those cities. All provided only surnames, because of concerns about being identified by the regime.
The laborers worked 13-hour shifts and ate little more than two bowls of rice a day, they said. They had to buy their own socks and blankets. Pyongyang officials hoarded their wages and confiscated as much as 90%, they said, paying them upon departure. Workers were given $15 a month in spending money.
Despite the tough conditions, the jobs were coveted, largely filled by middle-class Pyongyang residents with Workers’ Party membership who bribed their way to overseas posts. One worker, a Mr. Kim, said he had earned about $3,000 over four years, and hoped to return to Russia.
“I’m going back home for the first time in three years because of the sanctions. I wish I had more money to take back, but at least I’ll see my family,” said Mr. Kim.
Before leaving, he stocked up on cigarettes he hoped would aid his path back to Russia—though he acknowledged it could take years.
Related
- North Korea Offers Rare Glimpse of Its Financial Picture (April 12, 2019)
- ‘These Are Our Friends’; Russians Push to Preserve North Korea Ties (Jan. 25, 2019)
- Thousands of North Korean Workers Enter Russia Despite U.N. Ban (Aug. 2, 2018)
U.S. officials have accused Russia of lax enforcement of U.N. sanctions. Russia’s ambassador to North Korea said this month that Moscow was on track to comply with the deadline. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow abides by international sanctions imposed on North Korea, including the resolution requiring the repatriation of laborers.
Moscow has its own reasons to comply. While cheap North Korean labor was especially valuable to Russia’s Far East at a time of rapid construction and economic development, building has slowed as the Russian economy faces stagnation. Where cheap labor is still needed, regional governments have been replacing the North Koreans with Chinese and Vietnamese workers.
Compliance in China is harder to gauge, experts said. North Koreans working in China are more often employed in textile factories or seafood-processing plants, making them easier to conceal than construction workers.
China, North Korea’s vital ally, says it is complying with all U.N. sanctions. In March, Beijing said about half of the North Korean migrant workers in China had been sent home, without disclosing a figure.
As North Korean workers leave Russia, more enter on tourism and education visas, which aren’t banned by sanctions. During the first nine months of 2019, 12,834 tourist visas and 7,162 student visas were issued to North Koreans, each rising about sixfold and threefold respectively from a year earlier, according to Russian government data.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Who do U.N. sanctions hurt most, North Korean citizens or Kim Jong Un and his regime? Join the conversation below.
Many of these visitors are likely working in Russia, experts said. But their visas last months, not years, and they may only be able to do menial jobs, such as farming, said Kang Dong-wan, a professor at Dong-A University in South Korea.
“The income and scale of operation will be nowhere close to what it used to be,” Mr. Kang said.
It would also be difficult for Russia to allow North Korean workers back to construction sites, where they would be easier to spot, said Artyom Lukin, an expert on Russia-Asia relations at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.
“The majority of laborers won’t be able to return,” Mr. Lukin said. “Russia could turn a blind eye to some laborers that come back next year, but there’s a limit.”
North Korea faces a challenge in replacing the lost revenue from migrant workers, but it does have illicit methods, said Jason Arterburn, lead analyst at C4ADS, a Washington-based research organization that has studied North Korea’s overseas workforce.
“There’s increasingly a shift towards cyberattacks to raise significant sums of money,” Mr. Arterburn said.
—Thomas Grove in Moscow and Stephanie Yang in Beijing contributed to this article.
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndzai5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZXMvbm9ydGgta29yZWFuLXdvcmtlcnMtZmxvY2staG9tZS1hcy1zYW5jdGlvbnMtZGVhZGxpbmUtaGl0cy0xMTU3NjgzNzgwM9IBAA?oc=5
2019-12-20 10:30:00Z
CAIiELKyCtRGPt2vZY9iyiG2eggqFwgEKg8IACoHCAow1tzJATDnyxUw54IY
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "North Korean Workers Flock Home as Sanctions Deadline Hits - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment