Tens of thousands of North Koreans are being sent to work abroad in conditions that amount to forced labour, to circumvent United Nations sanctions and earn up to $2.3bn (£1.5bn) in foreign currency for the country, a UN investigator has said.

Marzuki Darusman, the special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said in a report to the UN general assembly and at a news conference on Wednesday that the workers are being used as a new source of income, with North Korea facing a “really tight financial and economic situation”.

He accused the country’s government of violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which bans forced labour and to which North Korea is a party. Darusman said companies hiring North Korean workers have “become complicit in an unacceptable system of forced labour”.

Darusman said more than 50,000 North Korean workers are employed in foreign countries, mainly in the mining, logging, textile and construction industries, according to various studies – and added that the number is rising.

The vast majority are working in China and Russia, he said, but others are reportedly employed in countries including Algeria, Angola, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Poland, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

See more at:

The Guardian