From the Daily NK:
Married women in their mid-40s make up a growing share of the North Korean workers sent to China in 2026. Many of them left young children at home, and the long separation is taking a heavy emotional toll, according to a Daily NK source in China.
In the past, Pyongyang mostly sent young, unmarried women to staff Chinese factories. Middle-aged mothers now stand out among the new arrivals, and some struggle with years away from their families.
“Many of the North Korean women sent this year to garment and seafood processing plants in Jilin province are around 45,” the source told Daily NK on Monday. “There used to be a lot of young, unmarried women, but the number in their 40s really stands out now.”
The shift comes as the Kim Jong Un regime steps up its dispatch of overseas workers to China. Pyongyang sent about 10,000 laborers in a single month this summer, despite UN sanctions on the practice. UN Security Council Resolution 2397, adopted in December 2017, ordered member states to send all North Korean workers home by the end of 2019. The measure aimed to cut off a major source of foreign currency for the regime.
Observers in China have offered several explanations for the change in who gets sent abroad. Some wonder whether North Korea is running short of young, unmarried women to dispatch. Others suspect the authorities deliberately raised the share of married women to discourage defections. In their view, spouses and children left behind serve as hostages who keep the workers from fleeing.
That sounds all too plausible.
North Korean overseas workers typically hand over their passports as soon as they arrive abroad. That leaves them no way to return home on their own. Most workers stay at their posts for three to five years, which effectively cuts them off from their families for that entire period.
The separation causes severe psychological distress, especially for women who left young children behind. They cannot watch their children grow up or help when an emergency strikes at home.
Most of the money earned goes to the North Korean government. Also, long hours, and generally no mixing with the locals. It’s basically slave labour.
Leave a Reply