They spent up to ten years in the ocean and struggled in some of the harshest conditions that distant water fishermen could face. Many people did not step into the land because the Chinese captain didn't want to be seen by port authorities. Most of their pay went directly to their government, and some of their catches probably ended up at the European and Asian dining tables.
These were North Koreans assigned by the government to ride longliners of Chinese tuna operating in the Indian Ocean, according to a report issued Monday by the London-based Foundation for Environmental Justice. Through them, North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un established a new source of income for his cash-bound regime.
The UN has banned the employment of North Korean workers as Kim says he is using them to raise funds for the nuclear weapons program. But Kim sends tens of thousands of people abroad to acquire cash and other profits for his administration.
They work in factories and restaurants in China, cut down Russian camps and construction sites, and work in farms and shipyards in Eastern Europe. They sweated at construction sites in the Middle East and built monuments for African dictators. An estimated 11,000 North Koreans have been sent to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine.
Until now, the fate of North Korean fishermen has attracted little global attention, as they have been in vast oceans and have been blocked from other families and even their own families at once for years. .
The conditions they faced would “constitute forced labor that is larger than many of those witnessed in the already abused global fisheries,” the foundation said in its report, New York ahead of its publication. – Shared with the Times.
Available regulations and other data suggest that the ship's products may be entering European, British and Asian markets, the foundation said. The group discovered at least 12 Chinese tuna longliners using North Korean workers between 2019 and last year, four of which gave the power to export fish to Europe and the UK. He said that he was. The suspected carrier ships gathering fish from these Chinese ships in the sea said they have visited Asian markets, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
“If it was your husband, brother, father, son, you've been on the boat for months without being able to get off, but what does that mean and how does it produce? I think you can understand why we shouldn't, and why we shouldn't. Steve Trent, CEO of the foundation, said: “These workers are free to choose when and when to work. They cannot. They are forced into these ships and stored there.”
The foundation, which campaigns on environmental and human rights issues, was found on evidence, including interviews with 19 Indonesians and Filipino seafarers who said they had worked with North Korea. The investigator also obtained a video clip cited the North Korean on board and showed the sailors speaking in Korean. Three of the Indonesian seafarers spoke to the New York Times separately. The era has not revealed their identity as they can work again on Chinese fishing boats.
The crew said they communicated with the North Koreans using body language and a bit of mandarin and each other's languages they picked up while working together.
They said that North Korean crews were usually transferred to sea sister ships before the ships were docked, and later returned again. The crew that landed on the ground were able to use their mobile phones to call their families, but North Korea didn't even have a mobile phone.
If their presence is discovered by foreign port authorities, it could cause legal trouble for their Chinese captains: in December 2022, the Mauritius news media reported that six North Korean workers and We have reported the arrest of a captain of a Chinese fishing boat.
“I docked again to Somalia, Mauritius, Australia, Madagascar and Somalia. North Korea was always deported,” he said, saying he worked with six North Koreans from late 2022 until June last year. The former Indonesian fisherman said. “One of them told me that he had a wife he had never contacted in the seven years he had left.”
On these Chinese ships, most of the crew had their passports and were unable to escape. They only slept five to six hours a day, but North Korea was often the most skilled workers on board due to their time spent at the sea. The second former Indonesian fisherman recalled how North Koreans on the ship urged others to work faster and shouted the North Korean phrase “hurry.” 2023. They worked throughout the pandemic, some transferred to other Chinese ships in middle-aged China after the end of their three- or four-year contracts.
“Their family doesn't think if they're still alive or not,” said the third Indonesian fisherman who said he worked with the three North Koreans. “They never said how they felt, but I can't imagine you didn't step into the land for eight years.”
The Indonesian crew earned around $330 a month, but they didn't know how much North Korea made. North Korea told them their salaries went straight to their government. One Indonesian crew said they lived only with the bonuses North Korea earned. Another said he was allowed to maintain $50 in his salary.
“They really save all the money,” said one Indonesian fisherman. “They showed me all the cents they had gathered.”
China's far-flung water fleet is the largest fleet in the world. The foundation said it cannot estimate the number of North Koreans working on Chinese fishing boats around the world until more extensive research is underway.
South Korea estimates that for over 30 years, North Korea has been sending workers overseas, earning billions of dollars a year.
In 2017, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for UN member states to expel North Korean workers by the end of 2019. However, last year, the UN panel of experts found that over 100,000 North Koreans still worked in 40 countries.
North Korean workers need to spy on each other when they go abroad and maintain an indoctrination life.
Former North Korean sailors remembered that they showed a video of the military parade and its leader Kim and gave a speech. They often dressed in the best clothes, hanging flags and sing. になったんです。 English: The first thing you can do is to find the best one to do.
However, their former sailors were able to learn how homesick North Korea was. One Indonesian sailor recalls a time when a North Korean colleague was finally allowed to go home.
“He was so excited and worried that when we told him to rest a little and go to sleep, he refused,” he said. “He just sat there, sitting on the deck watching the other crew work.”
