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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| 20,000 Nork Workers In Russia Recalled |
| 2010-11-28 |
| A mass exodus of North Korean workers from the Far East of Russia is under way, according to reports coming out of the region. As the two Koreas edged towards the brink of war this week, it appears that the workers in Russia have been called back to aid potential military operations. Vladnews agency, based in Vladivostok, reported that North Korean workers had left the town of Nakhodka en masse shortly after the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula earlier this week. "Traders have left the kiosks and markets, workers have abandoned building sites, and North Korean secret service employees working in the region have joined them and left," the agency reported. Russia's migration service said that there were over 20,000 North Koreans in Russia at the beginning of 2010, of which the vast majority worked in construction. The workers are usually chaperoned by agents from Kim Jong-il's security services and have little contact with the world around them. Defectors have suggested that the labourers work 13-hour days and that most of their pay is sent back to the government in Pyongyang. Hundreds of workers have fled the harsh conditions and live in hiding in Russia, constantly in fear of being deported back to North Korea. "North Korea's government sends thousands of its citizens to Russia to earn money, most of which is funnelled through government accounts," says Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist who discovered secret North Korean logging camps in the northern Siberian taiga. "Workers are often sent to remote locations for years at a time to work long hours and get as little as three days off per year." Now it appears that some kind of centralised order has been given for the workers to return home. Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok is thousands of miles and seven time zones from Moscow, but only around 100 miles from the country's heavily controlled border with North Korea. In 1996, a diplomat from the South Korean consulate in the city was murdered with a poisoned pencil, in what was widely believed to be a hit carried out by the North's secret agents. There are even two North Korean restaurants in the city. It is not known how many of the workers in other Russian towns have been called back to their homeland this week, or whether the exodus is permanent or temporary. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #6 totally fascinating, Goldies is right yes - to give up money means it must be serious and the SKs have evicted the journalists from the island too kind of like East Timor circa 1974 |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-11-28 19:36 |
| #5 If the North Koreans do start a war, they had better hope that the Chinese decided to send a couple of hundred thousand 'volunteers' down to secure Pyongyang. Because if the Chinese hesitate, the South Koreans will move up the border to include Pyongyang and a line across North Korea as the new international border. That would help remove the artillery threat to Seoul (which would have to be rebuilt after the North Korean attack), and create a 10 mile deep cordon sanitaire for the South Korean military to operate in. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2010-11-28 16:40 |
| #4 I agree with concerns that the Norks may, at least in their minds, think that there is about to be another war. In addition, there may be some weird psychological factors involved. Kim Jong-Il has always been belligerent, but never had a war of his own, and might want one as a send off. And at the same time, he might feel the need for his son to show that he is old enough to take his place, in the face of a dubious military command. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-11-28 09:00 |
| #3 If true it's serious. That's foreign exchange lost. |
| Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where 2010-11-28 08:20 |
| #2 fascinating article thanks anonymoose killed by a poisoned pencil it is really interesting... russians poison people they don't like in the UK with plutonium. NKs kill with a poison pencil the old poison trick seems quite popular between those two |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-11-28 00:51 |
| #1 Render unto Ceasar, er, Kim Jong Il, mf-er |
| Posted by: Fire and ice 2010-11-28 00:48 |