Tag: slaves

You would think that with the close ties the US and Poland have, that the Trump administration would have convinced the Poles to not use North Korean near-slave labor:

North Korean slave laborers are paid only US$27 a month on average working 12 to 16 hours a day in Polish shipyards, according to a Dutch academic. Most of their nominal wages go straight into the coffers of the North Korean regime.

Prof. Remco Breuker of Leiden University in the Netherlands told Voice of America on Saturday, “After the obligatory expenses, they would be left with about 27 dollars a month. That’s what they would be able to send home.”

A former North Korean worker at a shipyard in Poland is suing a Dutch shipbuilder over the slave-like conditions under a Dutch law that makes profiting from exploitation a crime even if the alleged offender is not the victim’s direct employer, which has turned the spotlight on the abuses.

The North Korean regime typically takes 70 to 90 percent of the wages of laborers it sends overseas to earn hard currency.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

After reading this article about the slave labor conditions these North Korean workers in Russia are facing; I couldn’t help, but think that this sounded like the conditions many juicy girls used to face not too long ago in South Korea:

A North Korean slave laborer died building a soccer stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia, for the 2018 World Cup, Norwegian football magazine Josimar reported Thursday. He was one of at least 110 North Korean slave laborers that toil at the building site.

Josimar and Western human rights groups are demanding that FIFA, the international football governing body, delve into abuses of the North Korean workers there.

Josimar found out about them when it was covering the construction of the Krestovsky Stadium, which was completed last month in time for the FIFA Confederations Cup in June.

The North Koreans lived in containers set up in a waste ground 200-300 m from the stadium. They worked at the site from 7 a.m. till midnight every day without a day off, Josimar said.

Their passports had been confiscated and they were under surveillance around the clock, banned from contacting workers from other countries. The site was surrounded by iron fence and barbed wire. A Russian supervisor at the site said the workers were “like robots” and looked deeply unhappy.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Does a 90% tax on a $100 a month salary make someone a slave?:

More than 2,500 North Korean workers have been forced to work in Mongolia and Poland under poor working conditions with their human rights being violated, a South Korean civic group said Wednesday.

About 1,800 North Korean workers are being forced to work mainly in Mongolia’s construction sector or in sewing factories while around 800 North Koreans are employed in Poland in the shipbuilding and construction sectors, according to the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights.

Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, said in his report that more than 50,000 North Koreans have been forced to work abroad, mainly in China and Russia, as the North seeks to earn hard currency.

The civic group said Mongolia has had close ties with North Korea for a long time and a distinctive geographical location bordering Russia and China where thousands of North Koreans are forced to labor.

Poland had friendly relations with North Korea during the era of the former Soviet Union and it is known as one of two European Union nations including Malta that has hired North Korean workers.

The agency said that North Korean workers in the two countries have repatriated about 90 percent of their salary to North Korea while earning less than $100 per month while working around 12 hours per day.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

North Korea’s slave labor network has been operating for decades, but South Korea has no right to complain about it considering the near slave labor they are using at the Kaesong Industrial Complex:

North Korea’s massive network of slave laborers is kept under strict surveillance and in case of injury or death are cheated of their compensation by the North Korean state, a South Korean NGO said Tuesday.

The report, based on interviews with 20 North Korean defectors in South Korea, highlighted severe human rights violations and wage exploitation that occurred at work sites in a total of 40 different Asian and African countries, The Korea Times reported.

Poland was the sole European nation that allowed North Koreans to work within its borders. Seoul’s foreign ministry estimates 50,000 North Korean nationals work at state-sanctioned sites.

One North Korean defector testified how the North Korean state cheated a family of its benefits after a construction worker fell to his death from a building in Kuwait. Of the $160,400 in compensation, the family of the victim received only $2,000.

Defectors who worked at sites in Russia said for every $100 earned, $90 would go to the state.

These workers were forced to work 15 hours a day. Even as temperatures reached below freezing, one defector said they were only given “one thin uniform” The Korea Times reported. [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

This is actually old news because the slave labor like conditions on some of South Korea’s remote islands has been reported on before. Now will the AP go and report an update on the near slave labor like conditions at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and other places North Korean workers are used?:

Slavery thrives on rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast, nurtured by a long history of exploitation and the demands of trying to squeeze a living from the sea.

Two-thirds of South Korea’s sea salt is produced at more than 850 salt farms on dozens of islands in Sinan County, including Sinui island, where half the 2,200 residents work in the industry. Workers spend grueling days managing a complex network of waterways, hoses and storage areas.

Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have emerged. Kim’s case prompted a nationwide government probe of thousands of farms and disabled facilities that found more than 100 workers who’d received no, or scant, pay.

Yet little has changed on the islands, according to a months-long investigation by the AP based on court and police documents and dozens of interviews with freed slaves, salt farmers, villagers and officials.  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link, but these islanders actually have recruiters that go around and pick up mentally disabled homeless people to bring to these islands as slaves.  Due to the remote nature of these islands the Korean authorities appear to have difficulty stamping out this practice.