From left to right, Japanese nuclear envoy Takehiro Funakoshi, chief South Korean nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and Sung Kim, the U.S. special representative to North Korea shake hands before their three-way meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 7, 2023. (Joen Heon-Kyun/Pool)
The U.S., Japan and South Korea urged countries to repatriate North Korean workers illegally sent abroad to earn cash for Kim Jong Un's regime, as Pyongyang appears to be easing Covid-based border restrictions that left them in limbo.
The nuclear envoys of the three countries issued a statement after a meeting in Seoul on Friday saying the workers were sent abroad in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and nations that host the laborers could be aiding in illegal activity.
"U.N. Member States are required to repatriate all DPRK laborers earning income in their jurisdictions," Kim Gunn, of South Korea, Takehiro Funakoshi of Japan and the U.S. pointman for Pyongyang, Sung Kim, said in their statement, referring to North Korea by its formal name. They expressed deep regret that North Korea "continues to ignore the hardship of its people" as it builds its nuclear weapons program in defiance of U.N. resolutions.
A Security Council resolution from 2017 required countries to repatriate the workers by 2019. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic there were about 50,000 North Koreans working in more than 40 countries, generating an annual revenue estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars for Kim's government, according to reports from the Security Council, U.S. and a human rights group.
North Korea usually takes about 90% of the wages earned by the workers, using the foreign currency to support its nuclear weapons programs, a report from a panel of experts for the Security Council said.
When the pandemic hit, workers in places such as neighboring Russia and China were stranded, finding themselves at the mercy of brokers and employers looking to pay them as little as possible, the report from the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said. "The economic difficulties created by the Chinese authorities' zero-Covid policy appear to have worsened the situation," it said.
Kim Jong Un closed borders at the start of the pandemic and in recent months has been easing restrictions at some crossings with China and Russia. Specialist service NK News this week reported that satellite imagery shows North Korea no longer appears to be quarantining imports at its disinfection complex on the Chinese border, saying it could signal a major easing to the country's pandemic-era trade policies.
The special representatives jointly denounced another major source of North Korean income: its overseas tech workers. According to the statement, North Korea has been using forged identities and nationalities to evade sanctions and earn income abroad to help fund its weapons programs.
Hacking groups that U.S. officials have linked to the North Korean government stole an estimated $1.7 billion in 2022, up from roughly $400 million last year, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis Inc. said in a report in February.
Cybercrimes have provided a lifeline for the struggling North Korean economy, which has been hobbled by sanctions to punish it for nuclear and ballistic missile tests and grown smaller since Kim took power about a decade ago.
Despite the economic hardships, Kim has pressed ahead with his weapons program, firing off a record number of ballistic missiles last year and rolling out new weapons in recent months designed to deliver nuclear strikes to the U.S. and the two countries that host the bulk of American military personnel in Asia - South Korea and Japan.
