This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
More than 500 North Korean workers dispatched to China for several years have returned home with serious illnesses over the past two weeks, residents in China told Radio Free Asia.
The returning workers, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, developed diseases like tuberculosis, lung cancer, liver cancer and mental illnesses, after working in dangerous conditions for several years the residents said. They are being recalled because they cannot work.
On Oct. 14, 252 workers were repatriated through the city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River border from North Korea’s Sinuiju. 250 returned by the same route on Monday, a resident of Dandong told RFA Korean.
“Most of the North Korean workers who returned this month were those who had been dispatched for more than six years,” he said. “They had their passports extended once under the North Korean authorities’ approval, but they were inevitably recalled due to their serious illnesses that prevent them from living in groups.”
North Korea dispatches legions of overseas workers to China and Russia to earn foreign currency for the cash-strapped government or for leader Kim Jong Un’s slush funds.
The government takes the lion‘s share of their pay and leaves them with a fraction, but that’s still more than what they would earn doing the same kinds of jobs at home.
100,000 workers
According to a report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions published this year, about 100,000 North Korean workers are still mobilized to earn foreign currency in over 40 countries, including China and Russia.
But all North Korean workers were supposed to have returned home by the end of 2019 as mandated by U.N. sanctions aimed at depriving Pyongyang of cash and resources that could be funneled into its nuclear and missile programs.
While many did return before the deadline, others were stranded in China when North Korea closed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stranded workers had to continue on taking any jobs that could be found for them during the pandemic, and the ones returning home this month are in desperate need of medical treatment, the resident said.
“The most common disease among the North Korean workers is tuberculosis,” he said, adding that others were going back with lung cancer and liver cancer.
Chinese customs is requiring health checks to let them through, because anyone with a fever or a cough is not allowed to cross the border, the resident said.
This is causing North Korean companies to try to cheat the system.
“The North Korean authorities required all the returning workers to undergo health checkups and report the results, but the North Korean companies only measure the body temperature … and record their condition as ‘normal.’”
It was not immediately clear why North Korea would want to deceive Chinese customs officials regarding the health of the returning workers, though doing so would allow for less red tape.
Most of the workers returning to North Korea have little hope of being cured, another Dandong resident told RFA.
“These workers were confined to work in factories surrounded by high walls for six to seven years,” he said. “Even though they are young, they are complaining about health problems due to being forced to work and live in unsanitary conditions.”
He said that some of the returning workers are vomiting blood, but the North Korean companies are reporting to Chinese customs that their condition is “normal.”
“The company only records the body temperature of workers without having the workers go through a proper medical examination at a hospital,” the second resident said.
