While considered “the lucky ones,” many North Korean overseas workers still face extreme hardship and privation abroad. These men and women, lured by the promise of economic opportunities across Asia and Africa, work in a variety of sectors ranging from logging to construction to hospitality. Desperate for foreign currency, the North Korean government authorizes this overseas work, receiving worker pay directly and extracting 50-75% — a system that’s tantamount to “state-sponsored slavery” according to some human rights groups. Apart from imposing harsh taxes, the Kim regime isolates its workers and controls their freedom of movement, largely to prevent defection but not always. More recently, North Korea’s draconian Covid lockdown separated overseas workers from family members for a period of three to four years as the country increasingly grappled with widespread starvation. Now as overseas workers begin trickling back into the DPRK, one wonders at the type of homecoming they will receive.
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