North Korea continues to use overseas workers to bring in foreign currency

A shipyard in Poland. Most North Korean workers are employed on farms, construction and shipyards (illustration image). Getty Images/Eddie Gerald

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North Korea continues to use illegal workers abroad to fund its weapons program. This is what the United States affirms in a joint statement with South Korea and Japan, calling for compliance with UN sanctions against the North Korean regime. The trilateral statement calling for the immediate repatriation of workers also stresses the importance of Pyongyang's cyberattack program in recent months.

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With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca

This is a historical practice of the regime denounced by the Japanese American and South Korean envoys for North Korea. The U.S. mission to the United Nations estimated that there were 100,000 North Korean workers abroad before the pandemic. Whether they are loggers, construction workers or restaurateurs, they work mainly in China and Russia but also in Africa, Kuwait, Qatar or Mongolia.

Prohibited practice

This is one of the means put in place by the regime to bring foreign currency into the country. But as of 2017, the practice is prohibited by UN sanctions, and, since 2019, member states must repatriate North Korean workers to their country. But in 2020, in the face of the pandemic, North Korea closed down and since then, almost no one has been crossing borders legally.

What about hackers?

It is hard to imagine that these tens of thousands of workers have all returned home. During a trilateral meeting on Friday, April 7, the emissaries of Seoul, Tokyo and Washington also insist on other employees of the regime who sometimes officiate abroad: hackers. Pyongyang reportedly stole up to $1.7 billion in cryptocurrencies last year.

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  • North Korea
  • South Korea
  • United States
  • Japan
  • Diplomacy
  • Human rights
  • Employment and Labour