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[ Country-by-Country Reports ] NORTH KOREA (TIER 3) [Extracted
from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008] The Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K. or North Korea) is a source
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced
labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The most common form of trafficking
involves North Korean women and girls who cross the border into the
People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) voluntarily. Many of them are from
North Hamgyong province, one of the poorest provinces in the country, located
near the Chinese border. Once in the P.R.C., they find themselves in
difficult legal and financial circumstances, are picked up by traffickers,
and sold as brides to PRC nationals, usually of Korean ethnicity. In other
cases, North Korean women and girls are lured out of North Korea to escape
poor social and economic conditions by the promise of food, jobs, and
freedom, only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor
arrangements once in the P.R.C. While many women trafficked into China are
sold as brides, some North Korean women in China are forced into
prostitution, usually in brothels. The illegal status of North Koreans in the
P.R.C. and other Southeast Asian countries increases their vulnerability to
trafficking for purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. NGOs
estimate that tens of thousands of North Koreans presently live in China,
more than half of whom are women; however, there is no reliable information
on how many of these North Koreans are or have been trafficked. Within the
D.P.R.K., forced labor continues to be part of an established system of
political repression. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 persons in political
prison camps are subjected to reeducation through labor, by logging, mining,
and crop tending. Reports indicated that conditions in camps for political
prisoners are extremely harsh, and many prisoners are not expected to
survive. The D.P.R.K. regime recruits an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 North
Korean contract workers to fill highly sought-after jobs overseas for
D.P.R.K. entities and foreign firms. While there is no evidence of force,
fraud, or coercion in the recruitment process, there are continued reports
that North Koreans sent abroad may be employed in harsh conditions, with
their freedom of movement and communication restricted. There are concerns
that this labor may be exploitative, since their salaries are deposited into
accounts controlled by the North Korean government. Countries in which North
Koreans work through such arrangements reportedly include Russia, Romania,
Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Angola, Mongolia, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq and
China. The North Korean government recently signed an agreement with Mongolia
that will send up to 5,300 North Korean laborers to Mongolia over the next
five years. North Korean workers at joint ventures within the D.P.R.K. are
employed under arrangements similar to those that apply to overseas contract
workers. The North
Korean government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
The government does not acknowledge the existence of human rights abuses in
the country or recognize trafficking, either within the country or
transnationally. The D.P.R.K. government does not differentiate between
trafficking and other forms of illegal border crossing, such as illegal
economic migration or defection. The government also contributes to the
problem of trafficking through forced labor prison camps, where North Koreans
live in conditions of servitude, receiving little food and little, if any
medical care. There also remain concerns about the government’s
contract labor arrangements abroad, with the D.P.R.K. government keeping most
or all of the foreign exchange paid for workers’ salaries. |