One hundred women from Pyongyang were dispatched at the beginning of this year to work in the shellfish industry in the Chinese city of
Dandong, Daily NK has learned.
 A group of North Korean restaurant staff checks their goods at the bus terminal in Yanji. The goods are being sent to Pyongyang. Taken on June 27th, 2014. | Image: Seol Song Ah |
He explained by phone on August 11th, “It was at the start of this year that more than one hundred women
from Pyongyang with good looks and good songbun [family political
background and loyalty] were sent to work in a seafood processing plant.”
“Unlike that group of 20-something
women sent from the provinces in July last year, this time they even looked
into academic backgrounds,” he said [see linked article]. “Their monthly wage is around $80 USD.”
Daily NK reported earlier this year on the case of a group
of 200 women, all aged 18-19 and over 160cm with good songbun, who
were sent to Shenyang in July 2013 to work as shellfish packers. At the time,
an official from the company involved visited the homes of the women to inform
their families of the news.
Pyongyang residents currently constitute the single largest group of those sent abroad to work. Most recent loggers in Russia hail from
the North Korean capital, as do many of those working in restaurants and textiles enterprises in China and Southeast Asia
“They are trying to
raise the average standard of living of people in Pyongyang by sending people
abroad to work,” the source asserted. He added that this simultaneously has the effect of elevating loyalty to the regime of Kim Jong Eun in the capital, which is where it matters most.
“There are a number of
joint ventures between North Korea and China in Dandong, and most of the
managers there are Pyongyang residents in their 40s, too,” he added.
As recently as the
1990s, average consumer spending in Pyongyang remained low outside the elite
class. This was primarily a result of regulations concerning entry into the
city for non-residents, which interrupted the circulation of goods.
More recently, however, the source said that remittances from abroad are spurring economic diversification in the city, with hard currency funding the
formation of small-scale private commercial enterprises.
“Their salary is $80 USD,
but extended working hours can yield up to $150 USD. This makes them work harder to try to and increase their earnings,” the source explained. Technical skills can affect workers’ salaries; average takeaway lies around $130 USD. However, actual contracted earnings are around $400-500 USD [2000-3000 RBW], with 70% sent back to the North Korean authorities directly. (A similar deal applies to North Korean workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.)
He alleged that women sent from Pyongyang tend to receive their pay in a punctual manner, adding that this is not always the case for those from the provinces. This cannot be independently verified.
