N. Korea exports more labor forces abroad as Kim Jong-Un faces pressure to buy loyalty at home

Special to WorldTribune.com

SEOUL — North Korea has increasingly exported laborers since Kim Jong-Un took power in late 2011 in a bid to earn much-needed foreign currencies given the tightened international curbs on cash flows.

North Korean waitresses work at a restaurant in Changchun in China's Jilin Province. /CFP — North Korean waitresses work at a restaurant in Changchun in China’s Jilin Province. /CFP

The policy risks exposing more North Koreans to outside influences, which could result in more defections and cracks in a society tightly insulated from outside forces, sources and defectors here say.

Some 10,000 North Koreans workers were sent overseas during the first year of the Kim Jong-Un regime, according to South Korea’s biggest newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

The number of North Korean laborers overseas stood at about 46,000 as of January, up from 36,000 in December 2011, when Kim ascended to power following the abrupt death of his father Kim Jong-Il, it said.

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N. Korea exports more labor forces abroad as Kim Jong-Un faces pressure to buy loyalty at home added by World Tribune on July 25, 2013
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