Working conditions for North Korean workers in the Kaesong Industrial Park have been well publicized. What is less known is that North Koreans are working all over the world in isolated conditions to earn hard currency for their governent.
Experts estimate that there are 10,000 to 15,000 North Koreans working abroad in behalf of their government in jobs ranging from nursing to construction work. In addition to the Czech Republic, North Korea has sent workers to Russia, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, defectors say.
Almost the entire monthly salary of each of the women here, about $260, the Czech minimum wage, is deposited directly into an account controlled by the North Korean government, which gives the workers only a fraction of the money.
To the extent that they are allowed outside, they go only in groups. Often they are accompanied by a guard from the North Korean Embassy who is referred to as their “interpreter.” They live under strict surveillance in dormitories with photographs of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il Sung and current leader Kim Jong Il gracing the walls. Their only entertainment is propaganda films and newspapers sent from North Korea, and occasional exercise in the yard outside.
Kim Tae San, a former official of the North Korean Embassy in Prague, helped set up the factories in 1998 and served as president of one of the shoe factories until he defected to South Korea in 2002.
It also was Kim’s job to collect the salaries and distribute the money to workers. He said 55% was taken off the top as a “voluntary” contribution to the cause of the socialist revolution. The women had to buy and cook their own food. Additional sums were deducted for accommodation, transportation and such extras as flowers for the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
The women even had to pay for the propaganda films they were forced to watch. By the time all the deductions were made, each received between $20 and $30 a month. They spent less than $10 of it on food, buying only the cheapest local macaroni.
“They try to save money by not eating,” said Kim, the former embassy official. He says that his wife, who accompanied him on visits to the factory, was concerned that women’s menstruation stopped, their breasts shriveled and many experienced acute constipation. “We were always trying to get them to spend more on food, but they were desperate to bring money home to their families.”
Czech officials say the North Koreans are model workers.
“They are so quiet you would hardly know they are here,” said Zdenek Belohlavek, labor division director for the district of Beroun, which encompasses Zelezna and Zebrak, a larger town where about 75 North Korean seamstresses stitch underwear.
Belohlavek displayed a thick dossier of photos and vital statistics of the women, most of whom were born between 1979 and 1981. All their paperwork is in perfect order, and the factories appear to be in full compliance with the law, he said.
