North Korean authorities are exerting increasingly cruel surveillance and controls to prevent defections by North Korean workers who have been dispatched abroad. Pyongyang is reportedly worrying about potential defections as workers have forced to extend their sojourns abroad due to the protracted closure of North Korea’s borders.
According to a Daily NK source in Russia, North Korean authorities issued an order during a political lecture on Saturday calling for intensified reports and controls on worker tendencies.
The lecture was attended by cadres tasked with managing North Korean workers in Russia, including workplace bosses, responsible officials, party secretaries, and security guidance officers.
The lecturer said there would be no worker rotations for the time being, and that worker deployments would be extended for a year, even for those who should return home because their visas have expired or because they have been deployed overseas for 10 years, the maximum allowable period.
The lecturer also stressed the measure was due to quarantine efforts to block COVID-19, not international sanctions on North Korea.
He added that with the Omicron variant spreading, repatriating overseas workers could lead to the immediate collapse of North Korea’s quarantine defenses.
North Korean authorities also presented policies that strengthen controls on workers to prevent them from defecting while they are overseas.
In the order, the authorities called for strict surveillance and regular reports on “workers who usually complain a lot, workers with suspicious movements and workers who want to abandon the Fatherland and escape” to prevent their alleged shortcomings from “turning into actual crimes.”
However, the order called for people who “turn their back to the Fatherland and try to escape” to be arrested and repatriated to North Korea in accordance with “Ministry of State Security repatriation procedures.”
Among North Korean workers in Russia, “Ministry of State Security repatriation procedures” means repatriating those who attempt to defect after injuring their legs so badly that they cannot walk on their own.
A North Korean defector who had worked in Russia said all workers know that the “Ministry of State Security’s repatriation procedures” means breaking the legs of would-be defectors and repatriating them in wheelchairs. He had never actually seen this done, he said, but was surprised the state would make direct mention of the “procedures.”
A high-ranking source in North Korea verified that Chu Kyong Chol, a North Korean worker in Russia who attempted to defect, was forcefully repatriated in an anesthetized state with wounded Achilles tendons after he was arrested by a Ministry for State Security security team sent to Russia.
North Korean authorities are apparently so concerned about worker defections that the state is cruelly maiming individuals before repatriating them.
North Korean authorities also made clear in the order that they will not reduce the so-called “loyalty funds,” the allotted share workers must pay to the state.
This essentially revealed the desire on the part of the authorities to secure party funds through worker efforts to earn foreign exchange, even though there will be no rotation of workers due to COVID-19.
North Koreans currently working in logging camps and construction sites in Russia pay anywhere from USD 4,500 to USD 10,000 per person a year in loyalty funds.
Based on Daily NK’s reporting, North Korean authorities raised the loyalty fund quota by around 30 to 55%.
Many North Korean workers in Russia reportedly complain that they suffer from hard labor and poor living conditions.
Many workers apparently wish to return to North Korea, believing it better to go back to their hometowns after the loyalty funds they must pay have skyrocketed.
With North Korean authorities ordering workers to continue paying increased loyalty funds while nixing worker rotations for the time being, discontent on the part of North Korean workers in Russia is expected to rise. However, workers will likely need to think long and hard before deciding to defect in the face of tightened surveillance by the authorities.
