North Koreans process salmon, snow crab eaten in US, Europe
Americans buying seafood for dinner may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an Associated Press investigation has found. Their purchases may also have supported forced labor.
At a time when North Korea is banned from selling almost anything, the country is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide to bring in an estimated $200 million to $500 million a year. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion.
While North Korean workers have been documented overseas, the AP investigation reveals that some products they make go to the United States. AP also tracked products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.
In response to the investigation, Senate leaders said Wednesday that the U. S. needs to keep products made by North Koreans out and get China to refuse to hire North Korean workers.
“The (Trump) administration needs to ramp up the pressure on China to crack down on trade with North Korea across the board,” said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.
At Chinese factories, North Korean workers aren’t allowed to leave their compounds without permission, and must step from housing to factories in pairs or groups, with North Korean minders. They receive a fraction of their salaries, while the rest — as much as 70 percent — is taken by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government.
John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, urged its 300 members, including the largest seafood importers in the U. S., to “ensure that wages go to the workers, and are not siphoned off to support a dangerous dictator.”
Besides seafood, AP found North Korean laborers making wood flooring and sewing garments in Chinese factories. Those industries also export to the U. S., but AP did not track specific shipments except for seafood.
American companies aren’t allowed to import products made by North Korean workers anywhere in the world, and companies doing business with them could face criminal charges for using North Korean workers or materially benefiting from their work. (The AP employs a small number of support staff in its Pyongyang bureau under a waiver granted by the U. S. government to allow the flow of news and information.)
U. S. Customs and Border Protection, responsible for enforcing the law, did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is a state-sponsored scheme to export folks who are in bonded labor,” said Luis CdeBaca, former U.
