North Korea recently deployed new workers to China despite international sanctions prohibiting the country from sending laborers abroad, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in China told Daily NK on Tuesday that North Korea sent 350 new workers to China in early July. After entering the country, the workers were immediately sent to dormitories for North Korean overseas workers in Dandong, Liaoning Province, and are now working in factories to manufacture goods like clothing and textiles.
The latest batch of workers arrived in the country by bus after passing through the city of Hunchun in China’s Jilin Province. This route is notably different from the usual direct route to Dandong that passes through the border town of Sinuiju. The choice to forego the typical Sinuiju-Dandong route, despite having Dandong as the final destination, suggests that the path through Huchun was chosen to avoid the eyes of the international community.
According to the source, the 350 new workers are all women in their 20s and 30s, with the exception of the cadres in charge of managing the newly deployed workers. The majority of these workers are unmarried.
The laborers began working immediately after entering China and are working long, 12 hour days from 7 AM until 8 PM.
New workers paid more than before
However, the new workers are making higher wages than those who came before them.
“Chinese companies are paying North Korean workers at a rate of RMB 3,200 (around USD 442) or more each month,” the source said.
North Koreans workers’ salaries are still less than one-fourth of their Chinese counterparts, but these wages are significantly higher than the reduced monthly wages workers were receiving during COVID-19 (RMB 2,200 – 2,500).
The North Korean authorities had negotiated with Chinese companies to raise wages back in 2021, but many companies pleaded economic difficulties in the face of COVID-19 and the large number of international companies pulling out of China. As a result, North Korean workers failed to see any real increase in wages.
With a batch of new laborers deployed to China, many are now predicting that workers who have been stuck in China for the last three years due to border closures will soon be heading back to North Korea.
In fact, workers based in China over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic have been preparing to return to North Korea for a while now and will be ready to leave as soon as the orders are given, the source explained.
“When these workers return to North Korea, they will probably also take the indirect route through Hunchun as well. If they return via the Dandong-Sinuiju route, the government wouldn’t be able to maintain its justification for restricting travel over the border in Sinuiju.”
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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