By Kim Young-jin
Some 4,000 North Koreans are working in construction jobs in the suburbs of Kuwait’s capital city, an official said Monday, the latest estimate pointing at the rapid expansion of Pyongyang’s foreign labor force.
The North dispatches tens of thousands of workers abroad in a bid to raise hard currency for its struggling economic system, stymied by sanctions and rampant inflation.
Reports citing a Seoul diplomat in the Middle Eastern country said the workers were concentrated in the suburbs of capital, constructing houses, hospitals and other facilities and stayed in military style barracks nearby. The workers earn up to $500 a month as carpenters, welders and other jobs, but all but $100 goes directly to the government, the diplomat said.
The North’s flagship airline, Air Koryo, which last year announced the launching of direct flights to Kuwait before abruptly cancelling the service, estimated on a Facebook page that up to 10,000 North Korean workers reside in country.
The North has been steadily increasing foreign workforce since the mid-2000s, including to Russia, China, Central and Southeast Asia and the Middle East as the country battles international sanctions for its nuclear weapons program.
“The export of labor is a key way for them to legally earn dollars along with the exportation of minerals and development of special economic zones,” Lim Soo-ho, a researcher with the Samsung Economic Research Institute, said.
The North’s laborers draw interest because they are a rare example of the authoritarian government allowing citizens to live abroad. The best known destination has been Eastern Russia, where some 15,000 North Koreans are thought to be working in logging camps.
Pyongyang has also reportedly signed a deal with China to allow 20,000 North Koreans to work in its northeastern provinces such as Jilin and Liaoning. Thousands of North Korean workers have been reported in locations from Mongolia to Africa.
While experts say that the jobs allow North Koreans to earn more than they would at home, they are chiseled of most their earnings and are open to a wide range of abuses including extortion by North Korean agents.
According to the U.S. State Department’s 2012 report on human trafficking, “Workers’ salaries are deposited into accounts controlled by the North Korean government, which keeps most of the money, claiming fees for various ‘voluntary’ contributions to government endeavors.”
The report added that were “credible reports that these workers faced threats of government reprisals against them or their relatives in North Korea if they attempted to escape or complain to outside parties.”
High demands by the regime have reportedly led some laborers to engage in illicit activities, including eight North Korean workers who were arrested by Kuwaiti authorities in April for allegedly bootlegging alcohols. The workers in Russia are said to have been involved in smuggling of animal parts such as deer antlers and gall bladders of bears, which are used to make traditional medicine.
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