cross-posted from: mander.xyz/post/49505101

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They are among more than 100,000 North Korean nationals being exploited as part of a state-sponsored labor program that operates in 40 countries, according to Global Rights Compliance, an international human rights foundation based in The Hague.

Each year the North Korean program is estimated to generate $500 million in foreign currency revenue for the reclusive, nuclear-armed state, with workers spread across construction, textiles, medicine, information technology, food service and other industries. The practice also provides an economic boost for Russia, which faces a critical labor shortage more than four years into its war with Ukraine.

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According to the report, North Korean workers often don’t even know whom they’re working for after they are hired by Russian companies in violation of U.N. sanctions. Their passports are immediately confiscated and held by North Korean security officials in Russia, the report said.

“The relative ease with which DPRK workers continue to be transferred into exploitative overseas labor arrangements should be deeply alarming,” said Lara Strangways, the head of business and human rights at Global Rights Compliance, using the initialism for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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Living conditions are described as dire, with workers living in unheated, overcrowded containers infested with cockroaches and bedbugs and limited to one or two showers a year.

Those working in Russia must meet an “actively rising” mandatory monthly quota — typically around $700 — which is paid directly to the North Korean state. Any shortfall is carried forward, trapping workers in a cycle of debt bondage, the report said.

Injuries and illnesses are frequently ignored or treated as obstacles to productivity.

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