Although North Korea has selected workers to dispatch to eastern parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia, Pyongyang has delayed sending them for the time being, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Tuesday that the North Korean authorities have yet to send the workers to occupied Ukraine, which they were supposed to do last November.
“This is because they were going to rush the workers over if Russia quickly ended the war and expanded its liberated zones, but the war isn’t going as well as they thought,” he said.
North Korea initially planned to earn some foreign currency by sending laborers to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine to work on reconstruction projects.
Accordingly, North Korean authorities selected a first batch of workers last November and later recruited additional workers.
However, when the war grew protracted and eastern Ukraine became its hottest battlezone, Pyongyang reportedly held off on sending the workers as it became difficult to do so.
“I think even our country [North Korea] can’t make its people run around a danger zone to earn money, no matter how important the cash is,” said the source.
“You don’t just drop people into a construction zone. You’ve got to send heavy machinery and supplies, too. But I understand the situation isn’t good enough now to send them,” he added.
The source further explained that North Korea and Russia have been discussing the North Korean worker deployment, and that he thinks “there will be a signal [for when North Korean laborers can be sent to Ukraine] when the war comes to an end.”
That is to say, North Korea will send the workers only when there is a lull in the fighting and the security of its workers can be ensured.
WORKERS IN LIMBO
Meanwhile, with the plan to send the workers provisionally shelved, the workers themselves are reportedly troubled by unforeseen problems.
Some of the workers selected to go abroad have been given overseas worker status, but with their departure delayed, they now find themselves in a gray zone in terms of affiliation.
The source said that because of this, they cannot work at their original workplaces, and exist on paper as “8.3” workers — that is, workers who pay money to their original agencies or enterprises so that they can unofficially engage in economic activity elsewhere.
Moreover, people who borrowed money on condition that they would pay it back after their overseas deployment have been put into a tight spot.
Individuals who borrowed money to pay substantial bribes to cadres to get selected for overseas service are reportedly worrying that the authorities will cancel the dispatch of workers altogether.
In fact, the source said that with no signs emerging that the workers will be sent anytime soon, some people feel ill at ease, worrying that all the money they used to bribe cadres has been wasted.
“The people who borrowed money to pay the cadres department are a problem, but there will be trouble if they can’t go to Russia when the interest on the money they borrowed looks like it will be as much as the principle,” he said.
“If the worker dispatch doesn’t happen, problems will grow serious between the cadres who took bribes and the people who paid those bribes,” said the source.
“Clearly, there will be a flood of complaints and petitions, or conflict will emerge,” he added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
