Calls are mounting to hold those in the North Korean leadership accountable for crimes against humanity. The Center for Investigation & Documentation on Human Rights in North Korea was established in Seoul to document abuses perpetrated by the North Korean authorities and record the testimonies of victims of abuse. One of its major goals is to prepare the groundwork for a legal basis to prosecute those responsible in the North’s leadership. In order to understand the importance of why South Korea and the international community must undertake such work, we heard from victims of the North’s human rights violations themselves.
Kim Song Guk (alias) was sent to work in Russia for two years beginning in 2012 as a construction worker. He will talk about the realities of life as a foreign laborer.
Hello, please introduce yourself.
My hometown is in Pyongyang and I was sent to work in Russia in 2012. In 2014, I escaped while in Russia and entered South Korea in 2015.
I know that you were sent to work in Russia as a construction worker. What led you to work overseas?
I wanted to go because I needed the money. I was living in a Pyongyang basement apartment because I couldn’t afford a house, despite working continuously. Although I could survive by selling things at the market, I couldn’t save enough money to buy a house.
How much does one need to buy a house in Pyongyang?
(At the time) 8000 to 10000 dollars would have been sufficient to buy an average house.
Various government agencies send workers abroad to earn foreign currency. Which one arranged for your placement in Russia?
I was sent through a construction company affiliated with the External Construction Guidance Bureau (ECGB).
How many North Korean laborers were at your construction site?
There were about 500 laborers in our company and four companies stationed at the site I was sent to. Three of those were construction companies and the other was a clothing manufacturer that employed female ECGB workers. Of the construction companies, two were affiliated with the ECGB, and the other was affiliated with the army. I’m not sure of the manufacturer’s affiliation.
Each construction company employed about 500 workers and the clothing company had about 200 workers.
So about 1700 laborers were in one city. How much did you earn a month?
I received roughly 5000 rubles each month, which is equivalent to 100 USD.
So were you able to earn 1000 USD a year?
No. The pay was different each month, sometimes 3000 rubles and 5000 rubles other times. The money was also expected to cover living expenses, transportation, cigarettes, and alcohol. After this, almost nothing was left over. The only way to save any money was to do nothing and stay in your room all day, which is impossible. Many think that they can earn a lot of money if they go abroad, but this is certainly not the case.
I know that wages are never fully received because the authorities always take a portion. What pretext did the authorities provide for skimming your wages?
First we had to pay 850 USD a month to the company, this was mandatory. Of that amount, the government took 180 USD a month for each person. In other words the authorities collected 180 dollars monthly from each foreign laborer.
So the company took the rest of the money under a variety of pretenses including taxes, building maintenance, insurance, etc. But we workers understand little about this. We didn’t care much nor did we know how to calculate the amount of money taken. To us, this was just one more excuse to extort money, so asking for an exact accounting statement would have been useless anyway.
So how much was left over for the laborers?
It was almost impossible for there to be anything left. Russia is a very difficult place for foreign laborers to earn 850 USD monthly. It’s easy to earn a lot of money in summer because there’s a lot of work, but there’s almost no work in winter. Regardless of the conditions, you still have to pay the company each month, and this has to come out of the money that you’ve saved during the summer. All the money earned eventually winds up in someone else’s hands.
So you would have to work even harder to send any money to your family back home?
Yes. But this is difficult because there’s only so much that your body can take and the hours that you can work are restricted. Admittedly, money can be earned to a certain extent if one does this, but it’s extremely demanding.
I’ve heard that workers are also forced to pay Party secretaries and the State Security Department officials. Is this true?
In addition to the monthly payment to the company, the Party secretary and manager overseeing operations and State Security Department personnel who were there in Russia also had to be paid. After all, they also came to Russia to make money for themselves. In particular, the State Security personnel were the most feared because of their unrestricted powers. They could send back any worker for being uncooperative. The power of the State Security personnel was just as great outside North Korea as in North Korea.
Party officials also took money from us under various pretenses, for instance, celebrating the birthday of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Party and SSD personnel both took bribes from us independently. SSD agents in particular had no legal power to take money from us. Instead, the only way they could extort any money was through threats. It was basically extortion.
It’s impossible to go about one’s work without attracting attention from the State Security Department (SSD). Things like leaving the camp or being friendly with the Russians were monitored and reported. Then you would be questioned about reasons for leaving the camp or what we talked about with the Russians. Getting out of the situations required paying a bribe of 5000 to 10000 rubles, effectively a month’s earnings.
What would happen if you couldn’t pay your monthly fee to the company?
For the first month or two, we would work hard to earn money to make up the deficit. However, after taking our monthly fee of 850 USD, the company would also hold back any remaining amount owed to us except for a small amount critical for daily expenses. The company promised us that we would be paid what was kept back at the end of the year. However, this was a scheme to keep enough money on hand in case a worker became injured and could not earn money to pay the monthly fee. If the money kept back ran out or the worker hadn’t returned to work, the worker would be sent back to North Korea.
How many hours did foreign laborers in Russia work?
Workers have no concept of time or rest. We would wake up at 7 AM and eat, starting work by 8 AM, which would then end around 11 PM. A 15-hour workday was the norm but there were many days when we would work even more. In the two years that I worked in Russia, there were almost no instances where work ended before 11 PM.
That must be have been extremely tiring. How many rest days did you have?
We only had one or two holidays per year – Kim Il Sung’s birthday and Lunar New Year’s Day. I only remember resting on those days. Outside of those days, we worked.
Russia must have domestic laws on labor regulations, but do they not apply to North Korean workers?
Russia probably has its own domestic laws, but the Russians delegate the work to the North Korean companies and don’t force them to abide by Russian laws or place any safety measures at the work site. The companies emphasize workplace safety, but it’s just talk. In reality nothing is followed.
Working such long hours must have led to many accidents; how were workplace accidents treated?
Minor injuries were treated by a doctor; each company had one doctor. After 2 or 3 days of treatment, you returned to work. But for major injuries, like when a person fell from a considerable height and suffered internal injuries or broken bones, a month or two of treatment would be needed. The company provided treatment for a month or two, but if they thought that recovery would take longer, then the worker was sent back home in order to cut costs. For the company, it’s all about money.
How frequent were fatal workplace accidents?
Fatal accidents happened frequently, they were not rare.
Did you think about complaining to the authorities about the violation of your rights? And were there any who actually complained?
No one seriously considered making a complaint. The most we did was to complain about the hard work and little pay during meals with friends. I heard that some workers at other companies went together to complain about the severity of their work and the terrible pay. But I personally never even dreamed about complaining.
North Korea’s foreign laborers work over 12 hours a day, while the authorities systematically extort the majority of their pay. The issue has become serious enough to attract the attention of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea. We call upon the North Korean government to cease the exploitation of its laborers and ensure that workers’ rights are protected.
