Disgruntled N. Korean defectors to establish trade union

A group of North Korean defectors said Tuesday that they will establish a trade union in an effort to protect their rights and improve working conditions. They said they plan to register the creation of the union with the Ministry of Employment and Labor next week.

According to Kim Ki-sung, 41, secretary-general of a preparatory committee to establish the union, North Korean defectors account for less than 1 percent of regular workers at “good” workplaces.

“Most of them work at restaurants, are day laborers at construction sites and part-timers. But the situation is deteriorating as Korean-Chinese, who outnumber North Korean defectors, are dominating those jobs here,” he said.

A 33-year-old man defected to South Korea in 2004, after working as an interpreter for a North Korean construction company in Vladivostok, Russia. A son of an official of the North Korean foreign ministry, he began to study in Russia at the age of 10. He later majored in Russian at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies.

When he worked at the North Korean construction company in Vladivostok, Russian company officials, according to the secretary-general, said he was the most excellent interpreter they had ever seen.

But now in South Korea, he works repairing air conditioners. He submitted applications to many companies, small or large. Finally, he managed to get a job at a small travel agency, but quit as the employer failed to pay him the due salary.

He is not the only North Korean defector who is highly educated and works as a day laborer. This results from a lack of measures to embrace them properly, despite acceptance of them into South Korean society.

Prejudice and discrimination also frustrate North Korean defectors here. They suffer prejudice and discrimination in the job market where they have to compete with Korean-Chinese.

A female North Korean defector, who is working at a restaurant in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, receives 40,000 won per day. A Korean-Chinese woman working at the same restaurant is given 50,000 won.

The woman in her early 50s complained that competitors in the job market are spreading groundless rumors that North Korean defectors are lazy and lack a sense of responsibility.