The North Korean authorities have begun preparing to bring home workers who are currently in China and to send new workers to replace them, Daily NK has learned. In addition to agreeing on the worker swap, North Korea and China also apparently see eye to eye on tightening surveillance and control over the workers.
A North Korean consulate in China recently instructed Chinese companies employing North Korean workers and the North Korean trade companies managing those workers that Chinese factories and companies that wish to employ North Korean workers will have to receive a permit and move their place of employment to an economic development zone from now on, a source in China told Daily NK on Monday.
Currently, the majority of North Korean workers are employed at factories in the Dandong Bianjing Economy Cooperation Unit, the Shanghai Lingang Industrial Area, and the Donggang Economic Development Zone, where they live together in dormitories.
But some groups of 20 or 30 North Korean workers have been assigned to work and live at factories on the outskirts of big cities or in small towns, rather than at the permitted economic development zones.
It has been customary for the North Korean trading companies that manage North Korean workers in China to assign some of the North Koreans already in the country to work at those small factories when requested by Chinese companies.
But small groups of workers living together in towns are not easy to manage or control, the source said.
In contrast with workers who only travel between dormitories and factories in an economic development zone, workers in towns have more freedom to travel outside of their accommodations.
That sometimes leads to problems with workers ditching their accommodations or even defecting. Another issue is that internal information, including North Korean workers’ labor conditions, becomes known to the outside world.
That in turn leads to attention and criticism from the international community, which is what the North Korean authorities are apparently hoping to avoid through these new guidelines, the source said.
But since the economic development zones in China are managed by Chinese local governments, the guidelines in questions were not something that the North Korean authorities could have decided on their own. In other words, the source said, both sides must have agreed to the guidelines.
“From the perspective of Chinese local governments, more companies operating in the economic development zones means more rent and more taxes. Also, collective control of North Korean workers helps them stay off the radar of the international community,” the source said.
RECALL OF WORKERS MAY TAKE PLACE IN MARCH
Amid these developments, the recall of North Korean workers currently in China is expected to take place as soon as March.
The source said the overland route between the North Korean city of Sinuiju and the Chinese city of Dandong could even be reopened around mid-March to allow the workers to be repatriated by bus.
Notably, the North Korean authorities are reportedly planning to bring home all the North Korean workers who are currently in China. North Korean regulations generally limit workers to three years in overseas postings, but quite a few of them have been out of the country for more than six years as a result of the border closing during the pandemic.
While Chinese companies will have to invest more time and capital in training the workers replacing the skilled ones being sent home, the labor costs for North Korean workers are so cheap that most companies see the benefits as outweighing the costs.
Daily NK’s source said that North Korea and China intend to “swap the workers quickly because their needs align on this issue.”
“While the timing hasn’t been settled exactly because of the COVID-19 issue, the workers will be exchanged as soon as the right circumstances are in place.”
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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