Russia’s war on Ukraine has taken a huge human toll on both Ukraine and Russia. But the BBC reports, that human toll isn’t limited to the two countries. According to experts and escaped survivors, it also includes North Koreans. Due to escalating labor shortages in Russia, thousands of North Korean workers are being shipped over and forced to work in “slave-like conditions” to earn income for the regime.
Not men, but “machines that can speak”
Wake up everyday at 6am and work building high-rise apartments until 2am with just two days off a year. That is the situation described by all six of the North Korean survivors now safely living in South Korea. The workers originally put their hand up for the overseas roles. But when the reality of their new future hit home, it was soul shattering.
Two of the survivors interviewed said:
Waking up was terrifying, realizing you had to repeat the same day over again…Some people would leave their post to sleep in the day, or fall asleep standing up, but the supervisors would find them and beat them. It was truly like we were dying.
And according to experts the working conditions are abysmal with almost no safety equipment. When the workers were finally allowed to sleep some spoke of dirty, overcrowded shipping containers, infested with bugs. Others described having to sleep on the floor of the unfinished apartment blocks. Workers had pull tarps over the empty door frames to try to block out the cold. And with constant supervision, there was almost no way out.
North Korean workers “everywhere” in Russia
Russia has been relying on North Korea to help it fight the war almost since the start. Supplying soldiers, missiles and artillery shells now it seems Pyongyang is also supplying laborers. Confined to their construction sites day and night and constantly watched by government agents workers say it is like being in a labor camp. One survivor called it “a prison without bars.”
Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and renowned expert in North Korea-Russia relations said:
“Russia is suffering a severe labor shortage right now and North Koreans offer the perfect solution. They are cheap, hard-working and don’t get into trouble,”
Last year more than 10,000 laborers were sent to Russia. An anonymous source said it is expected more than 50,000 workers would be sent this year. The jobs are highly coveted as a way out of poverty and promise the possibility of buying a home or starting a business when they return.
However, survivors say the reality doesn’t match the promise. Most of their earnings go straight to the cofires of the state as “loyalty fees.” They only receive the paltry remaining pay when they return home. This is a tactic to stop workers from trying to escape. And the recent uptick in workers shows North Koreans are now “everywhere in Russia.”
State-imposed forced labor surging as pathways to freedom diminish
Large-scale construction projects are still the norm in terms of the type of work most are forced to do. However, recent accounts say North Korean workers are now being assigned to clothing factories and IT centers. All of which is a direct violation of the UN sanctions banning the use of North Korean labor. And experts as well as the lucky few who managed to escape say authorities are now cracking down on the already limited freedom of those workers.
Before he escaped, one of the survivors was told by his manager he might not receive any money at all for his years of work when he returned to North Korea. The state needed it instead. That was the catalyst that pushed him to risk his life to escape. For those unfortunate North Korean workers about to arrive in Russia or still there, the pipeline out of state imposed forced labor is getting smaller and smaller. This is why Freedom United is committed to exposing these realities, so that we can rally together and put the pressure on governments around the globe to root out forced labor and demand that people are always put before profit.
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