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FILE PHOTO: In this photograph taken in June 2019, North Korean workers are seen entering a store in Dandong, China. (Daily NK)

Chinese customs authorities have been conducting strict inspections of the belongings and luggage of North Korean workers leaving for home recently, a Daily NK source in China said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The inspectors have confiscated large amounts of cash found on workers.

As recently as the beginning of this year, Chinese customs officials did not conduct excessive inspections of the luggage of North Korean workers as they were leaving the country. As a result, North Korean trade delegations would smuggle sensitive, internationally sanctioned items that were unlikely to pass customs into the bags of returning workers to send back to North Korea.

Now, not even the workers themselves can leave the country with internationally sanctioned items such as expensive clothing or handbags, or electronics such as notebook computers, because customs officials are conducting thorough searches of bags and luggage.

In addition, Chinese customs officials are now scrutinizing the amount of cash workers are carrying. Chinese authorities have set a maximum of RMB 2,000 (USD 276) that North Korean workers are allowed to take out of the country and prevent workers from leaving with more.

Accordingly, North Korean workers have been rushing to spend their cash, the source said.

Because North Korean workers sent to China usually receive their wages in a lump sum when they return home, they usually do not carry much cash. However, some workers slowly save the small amount of cash they receive from their companies each month for living expenses, eventually accumulating a substantial sum. In this case, the cash limit comes as an unwelcome shot out of the blue.

North Korean workers use their cash to buy clothes, shoes, cosmetics, Chinese rice cookers, and other items in Chinese malls. For a time, it was fashionable for North Koreans who went abroad to return with South Korean rice cookers. But with the North Korean authorities cracking down on such goods, returning home with a South Korean rice cooker is now unthinkable.

The problem is that North Korean workers are not given enough time to shop. Forced to do their shopping in a limited amount of time, the workers cannot even buy items they like, leaving many angry about intensified scrutiny of their luggage by Chinese authorities.

Chinese factories repatriate workers in small numbers

Meanwhile, garment factories in China’s Liaoning Province have been sending as many as 10 workers home every month or two.

North Korea repatriated workers with health problems or who were unable to work after the resumption of passenger train service between North Korea and China, which had been suspended due to COVID-19, in August last year.

Workers who are unwell or who have been in China for a long time have also been returning in small numbers recently.

Because Chinese factories would suffer greatly if their North Korean workers returned home all at once, China does not want large-scale repatriations, the source said.

“If North Korea simply orders the workers home, Pyongyang doesn’t earn any foreign exchange and the Chinese factories are all ruined. Because both sides have interests at stake, new workers are arriving in the same numbers as those leaving.”

Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.

Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

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