North Korean trade officials in China have recently been smuggling items they need to send to the North in the personal luggage of workers returning home. In essence, they are using a ruse to circumvent China’s customs procedures, which have become stricter on items going to North Korea.
Officials began using the system when Chinese customs authorities began blocking the export of all items covered by UN Security Council sanctions and even denied the export of some ordinary industrial goods, according to a Daily NK source in China on Thursday, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, Chinese customs officials are relatively less strict when inspecting the personal luggage of North Korean workers returning home.
Currently, about 100 North Korean workers in China return home by bus every week.
They are allowed to take up to one square meter of personal luggage back to North Korea. North Korean trade officials send home relatively expensive clothing, shoes, bags and other fashion items and sundries in the workers’ luggage, as well as electronics such as notebook computers.
Some of these items are luxury goods that are subject to international sanctions. But because Chinese authorities do not thoroughly inspect the luggage of returning North Korean workers, trade officials can send the goods home with relative ease.
“Last year, Chinese customs let such items through with little problem, so officials sent them back by train. But this year, they won’t let them send sanctioned items,” said the source. “So trade officials have no choice but to put the items in the workers’ luggage.”
The companies that manage North Korean workers are paid between RMB 700 and 1,000 (USD 96 to 138) per bag by the trade officials in exchange for smuggling their goods into the luggage. If they put trade items in 10 suitcases, the company can make up to RMB 10,000 (USD 1,400).
Trade officials find this method much more expensive than shipping goods by freight train, but they have no choice if they need to ship items to North Korea immediately.
Using workers’ luggage may be unsustainable over the long-term
While the companies that manage the North Korean workers and the trade officials collude to ship items back in the workers’ luggage, innocent workers pay the price. They are forced to cut back on gifts for their families and personal items they have accumulated for their return home. As a result, some workers have complained.
Trade officials also worry that the method is unsustainable because no one knows how long the parade of workers returning from China will continue.
“Even trade officials don’t think they can continue to send items home in workers’ luggage this way,” the source said. “But for now, it’s a useful way to send sensitive sanctioned items or other goods they need to ship.”
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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