Organization throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been rough. With factories shut down and trade with North Korea suspended from January 2020 to last month, many of the workers cant even cover their own living expenditures in China. The Olympics might reveal to them how much better off the rest of the world is.
North Korean employees in China are prohibited to travel to Beijing during the Winter Olympics, as Pyongyang hesitates they might get swept up in Olympic fever and “betray their homeland” by getting in touch with South Koreans, sources in China told RFA.
In the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River surround from the North Korean city of Sinuiju, a consulate oversees countless workers dispatched by the federal government of Kim Jong Un to China to earn frantically required foreign currency.
North Korean trade employees make handle Chinese companies to procure items to deliver into North Korea, or to supply laborers for factory work.
Business during the coronavirus pandemic has been rough. With factories closed down and trade with North Korea suspended from January 2020 to last month, a lot of the workers cant even cover their own living expenditures in China. The Olympics might expose to them just how much better off the remainder of the world is.
This is why the consulate recently informed everyone not to take a trip long-distance till the Feb. 4-20 Olympics are over, a North Korean trade worker in Dandong told RFAs Korean Service.
” If they need to take a trip outside of Dandong, even if they require emergency products to send back to the homeland, they need to report their intention to travel to the consulate ahead of time, reveal their train ticket appointment, and inform the consulate who they will meet and the time and place of the conference,” said the source, who requested privacy to speak easily.
” They highlighted that travel to Beijing and the surrounding locations, where the Winter Olympics are occurring today, is strictly forbidden. If theres an immediate requirement to consult with a Chinese counterpart in or around Beijing, they need to take a trip under the supervision of a companion designated by a state security representative,” he said.
The consulate in Shenyang, which is within the exact same province as Dandong, requires trade employees there to report on their activities daily, a source knowledgeable about the consulate informed RFA.
” They have to report the information of who they satisfied and what they did every day through completion of the Winter Olympics,” the second source, who also requested anonymity for security reasons, said.
” Family members of North Korean trade authorities stationed in China are also being closely kept track of to ensure their movements and ideological conditioning are not heading towards Beijing,” the 2nd source said.
Pyongyang is afraid that the spectacle of the Olympic Games might be attractive to the North Koreans in China, the second source stated.
” The consulate alerted that if a member of the family of a trade official is caught travelling to Beijing to view the Winter Olympics, the trade authorities and their entire family will be penalized as anti-party counter-revolutionaries,” he said.
” They fear that the trade officials and their families might can be found in contact with hostile forces, including individuals from South Korea, and this could trigger them to betray their motherland throughout the Winter Olympics,” the 2nd source stated.
With the trade authorities themselves having trouble making ends satisfy right now, “their ideology could quickly be shaken,” the source stated. “Their inspirations could easily be purchased by hostile forces such as South Korea, so the North Korean authorities continue to closely monitor their movements”
There are an approximated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans operating in China, according to the U.S. State Departments 2021 Trafficking personallys Report.
North Korean labor exports were supposed to have actually stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019.
But Pyongyang often dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.
North Korea revealed in January that it would not send athletes to the Beijing Olympics due to the coronavirus and what it called “hostile forces.”
Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
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