Mick Hartley

As we've seen, the pressure on North Korean labourers abroad to earn money for the Kim regime has grown as their increasing visibility in the media highlights the appalling conditions in which they live. Here's the latest Daily NK report into conditions for these workers in Russia:

State-enterprise affiliated managers and cadres overseeing the operation are responsible for collecting and contributing a fixed amount back to North Korea. However, they exploit the workers by increasing the worker’s bribe amount when the economy is favorable or the laborers secure more work….

The planning fund contribution is set at a fixed amount by the North Korean authorities, but given the endemic embezzling by cadres in the middle, the bribe price can grow much larger. By way of example, if a given worker’s requisite contribution to the planning fund were $1,000, approximately half of that total would be wired to the authorities back in North Korea; the other half would be split up among the state enterprise cadres overseeing the operations abroad.

Citing a laborer in Russia’s Vladivostok region, another source said, “The bribe amount is set by the Party, but the managers in the middle set this at a higher amount so that they can pocket the difference. This happens in most scenarios. Some managers even make outrageous rules in order to squeeze more money out of the workers: adding a 500 ruble fine for having long hair, 500 rubles inappropriate clothing, 5000 rubles for ‘disturbing the peace,’ and 1000 rubles for wearing blue jeans, just to name a few.”

Bribes are even required to receive permission to engage in contract work, he said, noting, “The Party cadres have caught on to the fact that the managers are embezzling a sizable portion of the planning fund. The cycle of bribery is perpetuated when the Party cadres demand a piece of the action. This multi-level corruption is especially oppressive to the individuals at the bottom of the pyramid: that is, the laborers."

While the lion’s share of a given laborer’s paycheck goes directly toward the planning fund, the remaining sum, while small, is still due to them. However, problems arise because a considerable amount of firms do not pay the wages until the end of the dispatch date. The managers at the firms sign a form confirming the dispersion of funds to the workers but, in reality, they hold on to the money until just before the workers return to North Korea. Likewise, holidays such as Kim Il Sung’s birthday and Party Foundation Day are used as excuses to withhold and embezzle wages.

According to a missionary contacted in the Khabarovsk region, there was an incident in Moscow two years prior in which a manager vowed to hold manage the laborers’ wages and distribute it in a lump sum prior upon completion of their stint abroad. Instead, he disappeared with the money. The financial impact on the six North Korean workers affected by the incident was enormous: the fruit of three years of their hard work evaporated in an instant. The infuriated workers complained through North Korean officials posted in Russia and, in an unprecedented move, were compensated.

The problem came in the wake of this incident. When the six workers returned to North Korea, they were arrested on charges of “disorderly behavior” for complaining about the manager to the North Korean representatives in Russia. In the end, they were all sent to a political prison camp.

Added the missionary, “I’ve met quite a few North Korean laborers during my time doing missionary work here in Russia. The interesting thing was that everyone knew about this incident. When I looked into it, I found out the in order to prevent organized resistance or further disturbances, the news about the ‘agitators being sent to a political prison camp’ was purposefully circulated. This was a threat designed to prevent copycat cases. The workers had no means to address any of their grievances. The situation was so grim that one worker committed suicide by lighting himself on fire, leaving behind a note that said, ‘I don’t blame anyone.'"