Tribble Agency
Tribble Agency


North Koreans sent abroad into 'forced labour', says UN

Worldwide news wire AP reported yesterday Marzuki Darusman, special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, as saying in a report to the United Nations general assembly and at a press conference that the companies hiring North Korean workers were "complicit in an unacceptable system of forced labour".

North Korea has more than 50,000 citizens sent overseas according to the United Nations, so that they work there and earn money for the regime. "It is believed that the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea earns through that system between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion. Other countries include, Malaysia, Mongolia, Qatar and UAE", the report read. They work primarily in the mining, construction and logging industries, assigned to the more risky tasks. "The school population is far more diverse than Danville's demographic profile", he said.

Employers pay "significantly higher amounts" to the North Korean government, enabling Pyongyang to profit handsomely from the arrangement, he said.

The report says workers are under constant surveillance by North Korean security personnel and they face repatriation if they do not perform well or violate rules.


North Koreans bow in front of statues of Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il

North Korea's tuberculosis deaths are declining, but 5,000 North Koreans still die from the disease annually. According to the report, the Supreme Leader of the DPRK had ordered executions of 15 individuals by firing squads on charges of spying. Between 2010 and 2014, 1,382 people were publicly executed.

After reunions of divided families, a slew of exchange and engagement projects going ahead After the first reunions of families divided by the Korean War in 20 months went off without a hitch, engagement between North and South Korea is increasing in the civic sector, with an inter-Korean workers' soccer game taking place in Pyongyang after a gap of eight years.

The Russian diplomat called on all parties concerned to spare no effort to involve North Korea into dialogue through expanded economic cooperation.

In South Korea, Park was sent to a re-education camp after government officials determined she was not a spy sent by North Korea.

Darusman said the overall human rights situation in North Korea remains "dire", adding that its government had declined or ignored his repeated requests to meet.

In addition to the North's worst drought in a century, Kwon was cited by local news agency Yonhap as claiming that China has also been exporting fewer crops to its long-standing ally.

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