2024-02-17 10:44:33
North Korea-China border. /Chosun DB
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 17th, citing a North Korean source, that about 2,000 North Korean workers dispatched to China occupied the factory and staged a demonstration last month to protest against non-payment of wages, and in the process, a managerial representative who was taken hostage was beaten to death.
According to a Yomiuri report, about 2,000 workers dispatched by a trading company under North Korea’s Ministry of Defense occupied a medical manufacturing and seafood processing plant in Jilin Province, northeastern China, on the 11th of last month to protest against non-payment of wages.
North Korean authorities attempted to resolve the problem by mobilizing the consul in China and agents of the Ministry of State Security, but workers refused to allow them to enter the factory.
Their riot continued until the 14th of the same month, and in the end, the managerial representative who was taken hostage was beaten to death by workers.
Yomiuri said, “This is the first large-scale protest by North Korea’s foreign dispatched workers,” and “The rebellious spirit of North Korean youth, who do not accept the state of slavery, has risen to the surface.”
The trigger for the riot was the spread of news that fellow workers who returned to North Korea last year did not receive the wages they should have received in Pyongyang.
It has been reported that a North Korean trading company has been stealing workers’ wages in the name of ‘war preparation funds’ since 2020, when the border between North Korea and China was closed as a COVID-19 measure, and paying it back to the North Korean leadership, and also embezzling company executives.
The North Korean authorities appeased the workers by paying unpaid wages, while identifying about 200 workers who led the riot and repatriating about half of them to North Korea.
A North Korean source predicted, “It will be difficult for workers who lead riots to avoid severe punishment as they are sent to political prison camps.”
This incident was also reported to North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, and the North Korean leadership is said to have been shocked.
Yomiuri predicted, “The workers dispatched overseas by North Korea to earn foreign currency are in poor conditions, just like the workers in this incident, so the aftermath of the incident is likely to grow.”
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