Dandong, China – Known as a “dream place of employment" among North Koreans, citizens of the North are paying hundreds of thousands of won in the form of bribes to gain employment in the facility.


Kim Jae Jung (Male, 45, residing in Pyongyang) met with a reporter on the 2nd while visiting relatives in Dandong. During his meeting, Kim reported, “in the past, people with relatives in China were envied, but things are different nowadays. Many people say that it is better to work at the Kaesong Industrial Complex rather than going to China to get help from relatives.”

Kim said, “I came to China legally after getting a passport, but it has been difficult to receive help from relatives, let alone find a job. It would have been better to work at the Kaesong Industrial Complex with the money I paid to obtain a passport.”

He added, “They say that one can find a job in the Kaesong Industrial Complex by giving 700,000 North Korean won in bribes for males and 200,000 won for females. If I had used the 200 USD (approximately 700,000 won) spent in obtaining a passport as a bribe, I could have entered the Complex.”

According to Kim, many people have gotten positions at the Complex after giving bribes and there are a countless number of people who are awaiting the opportunity to enter.

As for the why the Kaesong Complex is so popular, Kim explained, “‘Commodity provision tickets, equivalent to a worker’s salary, are given to laborers in Kaesong and if one uses these tickets well, he or she can make a huge profit.”

Currently, the official salary for laborers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex is around 60 USD, a small amount of which is distributed as cash and the rest in the form of “commodity provision tickets.”

In the Kaesong Industrial Complex, there are several shops that can only be frequented by Kaesong laborers and the prices at these stores are at inexpensive compared to prices in the jangmadang.

Laborers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex use their “commodity tickets” to purchase products at a cheap price and can make a huge profit by selling the goods, giving the difference to middlemen (currency traders who mediate deals).

Recently, there have even been cases where the middlemen had specific orders for certain items from the Kaesong laborers, asking them to procure a certain amount of rice, oil, and so on. The middlemen can easily make an exorbitant amount of money by selling these goods at the jangmadang.

Kim also said, “Among the laborers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, there are a lot of people who take an item here and there. Then they conspire with bus drivers and hide the goods in the vicinity; once the quantity is fixed, they hand over the goods to middlemen in exchange for money.”

He said, “They gained entry into the Kaesong Industrial Complex by giving bribes; aren’t they trying to funnel the funds regardless of the means?”