<Radio Free Asia> 2023-9-20, 당국 외면 속 죽어가는 해외 북 노동자 (Overseas North Korean Workers Dying Amid Government Neglect).

<English translatioin by DPRK Monitor>

Washington – Jamin Anderson, Seoul – Kim Ji-eun
September 20, 2023

• According to internal documents from a North Korean construction company dispatched to Russia, recently obtained by RFA, during the COVID-19 pandemic, workers who fell ill were unable to receive proper treatment, and, with the borders closed, were effectively abandoned in Russia, unable to return home.

• Anchor: The harsh reality faced by North Korean workers dispatched abroad to earn foreign currency is nothing new. However, according to internal documents from a North Korean construction company in Russia recently obtained by RFA, 8 out of 54 workers lost all ability to work due to terminal cancer and other serious illnesses. Yet, instead of receiving proper treatment, they were effectively neglected. Jamin Anderson reports.

  "What does it matter if you have cancer? If you had money for treatment, you would be sent home."

  This remark referred to a man in his 40s, a North Korean construction worker dispatched to Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East in May 2014 to earn foreign currency.

  Seven years later, in May 2021, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and was advised to seek treatment at a specialized cancer hospital. He refused, saying, “There is no money for treatment.”

  Instead of treatment, he went out to work. Eventually, he became unable to eat properly. Despite taking various medicines, his condition did not improve.

  The internal document obtained by RFA records in detail the cases of this patient and many others who were diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses but were unable to receive proper treatment.

• Choi Jung-hoon, a senior research fellow at Korea University’s Public Policy Institute who had previously worked as a doctor in North Korea, examined the document. He confirmed that the medical terms, written in the North Korean style (e.g., “페-폐” for “lung,” “림파암” for “lymphoma”), as well as the spacing, indicated that the document was authored by a North Korean.

  The three-page document, titled “The Patient Situation of the First Construction Company in Khabarovsk, Russian Federation”, was drafted around February 2022.

  It stated that, of 58 company personnel, 54 were workers (excluding 4 supervisors and interpreters), and among them, 8 were “judged by local health authorities to have lost their ability to work.”

  Specifically, there was one patient each with stomach cancer, lymphoma, cirrhosis, emphysema, and spinal disc disease; two with heart disease; and one undiagnosed for over a year.

  The document also detailed the case of a worker diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer.

  A man in his 50s, formerly from the Pyongyang Foreign Construction Training Facility under the Bureau of External Construction, was dispatched to Russia in 2015. In 2021, he was diagnosed with stage 4 (terminal) stomach cancer.

  Yet he did not appear to receive proper treatment. The document noted only that “the company has provided immune therapy on its own.”

  It shifted responsibility onto the patient, stating: “The basis of treatment is a stable lifestyle and dietary therapy, but because the patient continues to worry unnecessarily, his condition has worsened, and now he cannot eat and is suffering from pain.”

  The document also cited the case of a man in his 50s diagnosed with emphysema after missing the critical window for treatment.

  He was a worker from the Ryukyong Foreign Construction Training Facility under the Bureau of External Construction. Dispatched to Russia in January 2020, he began showing symptoms—shortness of breath, mild fever, loss of appetite—eight months later. In spring 2021, he was diagnosed with emphysema.

  Without proper treatment, the lesion, originally 3.5 centimeters in size, grew to 5 centimeters by January 2022. Surgery costs alone amounted to 320,000 rubles (about USD 3,315).

  This document clearly shows that while the North Korean authorities send workers abroad for foreign currency and subject them to grueling labor, they fail to guarantee even the basic human right to health.

  According to a local source in Khabarovsk (who requested anonymity for safety reasons), when the document was written in early 2022, North Korean workers in Russia were essentially abandoned.

  The source told RFA: “Before the pandemic, patients who were diagnosed with serious illness and unable to work were sent back to North Korea within a month. But during COVID-19, with the borders closed, it was impossible.”

  In April, Professor Kang Dong-wan of Dong-A University, who visited Vladivostok to observe the lives of North Korean workers, said some were visibly angry at the authorities’ neglect.

• Prof. Kang: “During the COVID-19 period, there were infections and even deaths. Yet the North Korean authorities ordered workers to handle COVID-19 measures themselves, providing no support for treatment or vaccines. As a result, there was a strong perception of being abandoned by the homeland they trusted. This led to unrest among overseas workers.”

  He said the workers were subjected to grueling construction work, laboring more than 16 hours a day, including night shifts.

  “The environment was so poor that, due to issues with status and treatment costs, some workers even pulled out their own teeth rather than go to a hospital,” he added.

  The document obtained by RFA also confirmed entries such as: “As treatment was deemed impossible, the company carried out its own immune therapy” and “the patient personally sought out a Korean-Chinese doctor.”

  Choi Jung-hoon told RFA: “Patients suffering from serious illnesses are left untreated, and their conditions only worsen.”

  Although doctors are sometimes dispatched with the workers, this is largely symbolic. They can handle minor conditions like colds or indigestion, but not serious illnesses or surgeries.

  Choi: “(In the case of the stage 4 stomach cancer patient) it is unlikely he survived. With stage 4, even with life-extending efforts, survival is only 6 months to a year. Since he could not eat, he would have fallen into malnutrition and died soon. Medicines are scarce, and even when they exist, officials take priority, while workers are told to ‘earn money and buy medicine themselves.’”

  After deductions for contributions to the authorities, operating expenses, and support funds, workers are left with only 10–20% of their wages—barely USD 100 per month. They cannot possibly afford local medical bills of USD 5,000–6,000 or more.

  Moreover, since many workers stay in Russia for extended periods, regular health checkups are rare.

  Prof. Kang: “Normally, workers are dispatched with a four-year visa, sometimes extended up to eight years. Because of medical costs, they cannot get regular health checkups. As a result, cancers are usually discovered only at the terminal stage.”

  As more workers became seriously ill, the company noted at the end of the document: “With the rapid increase in sick patients, financial expenditures have become the most pressing problem.”

  It added, under “Company Opinion,” that having to spend hundreds of thousands of rubles on treatment costs had already disrupted the execution of the national plan since January.

  It went on to plead that “since January, the company has been unable to maintain any contact with the homeland, nor receive any instructions.”

  This suggests the document was drafted by the local North Korean construction company in Russia, which, facing workers losing labor capacity to serious illness and receiving no support from Pyongyang, was appealing for measures to be taken.

  UN Security Council Resolution 2397, adopted in December 2017, required member states to repatriate North Korean workers by December 2019.

  However, experts estimate that thousands of North Korean workers are still being forced into foreign-currency labor in Russia’s Far East.

  Furthermore, following the recent summit between Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with both leaders agreeing to pursue joint projects in agriculture and construction, observers believe North Korea may expand its dispatch of workers to Russia.

  Editor: Park Jung-woo, Web Team: Kim Sang-il