{"id":65705,"date":"2025-12-05T03:10:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T18:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=65705"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:37:19","slug":"hyesan-excludes-unmarried-workers-from-china-dispatch-using-families-as-hostages-against-defection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hyesan-excludes-unmarried-workers-from-china-dispatch-using-families-as-hostages-against-defection\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyesan excludes unmarried workers from China dispatch, using families as &#8216;hostages&#8217; against defection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">Ryanggang province authorities now require overseas candidates to be married with children, tightening selection criteria as regime seeks to prevent defections by holding family members as leverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;Activities to select workers to dispatch to China are now ongoing in Hyesan, but unlike in the past, unmarried and married candidates without children are being excluded,&#8221; a Daily NK source in Ryanggang province recently. &#8220;If you look at the people being selected for dispatch to China, most are married with children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">The source said the selection criteria have tightened \u2014 in the past, one only needed a good background and ideological soundness to be selected for overseas work, but now, screeners also look at whether candidates are married and have children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">Because of this, unmarried or married people without children who hoped to earn a living overseas are complaining.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;Life is so hard nowadays, so many people want to go overseas to make money,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;As early as this spring, workers were sent overseas to China regardless of their marital status or whether or not they had children, but this time, candidates must be married and have children, so people who waited for the opportunity are disappointed and dejected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"font-claude-response-heading text-text-100 mt-1 -mb-0.5\"><strong>New standards aim to prevent defections by holding families hostage<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">North Korea has long considered dispatching workers overseas as a key means to earn foreign currency. At the same time, however, the authorities have feared that workers might become ideologically alienated or even defect as a result of direct contact with the outside world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">Accordingly, the North Korean authorities sent overseas only those who passed strict ideological vetting and background checks. However, as defections continued despite this, the authorities appear to have bolstered their selection standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">Some people say they suspect the state &#8220;wants to keep their families as hostages.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;Crossing the border from North Korea has gotten tougher since COVID-19, but cases continue of workers escaping after they&#8217;ve been dispatched overseas,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;In response, the state included marital status and children as selection standards to stop defections by workers dispatched overseas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words\">&#8220;After successfully blocking defections across the border during COVID-19, the state is now completely blocking defections from overseas by using family members \u2014 the workers&#8217; weak link \u2014 as hostages,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;Young people are growing more hopeless as it gets harder to be dispatched overseas, something they used to consider a survival option.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20251201-4\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ryanggang province authorities now require overseas candidates to be married with children, tightening selection criteria as regime seeks to prevent defections by holding family members as leverage. &#8220;Activities to select workers to dispatch to China are now ongoing in Hyesan, but unlike in the past, unmarried and married candidates without children are being excluded,&#8221; a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":42262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,649,2084],"tags":[930,1138,1189,1430,1986,271,738,759,763,844],"class_list":["post-65705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-china-north-korea-border","category-china-north-korea-relations","tag-foreign-currency","tag-overseas-workers","tag-children","tag-youth","tag-families","tag-ryanggang-province","tag-hyesan","tag-china","tag-covid-19","tag-defections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hyesan excludes unmarried workers from China dispatch, using families as &#039;hostages&#039; against defection - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hyesan-excludes-unmarried-workers-from-china-dispatch-using-families-as-hostages-against-defection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hyesan excludes unmarried workers from China dispatch, using families as &#039;hostages&#039; against defection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ryanggang province authorities now require overseas candidates to be married with children, tightening selection criteria as regime seeks to prevent defections by holding family members as leverage. &#8220;Activities to select workers to dispatch to China are now ongoing in Hyesan, but unlike in the past, unmarried and married candidates without children are being excluded,&#8221; 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