Report: North Korea laborers still deployed overseas

TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS 

North Korean guest workers remain in countries like China in violation of international sanctions, according to a copy of an interim U.N. report obtained by a Japanese newspaper. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- North Korea's state-sanctioned guest workers continue to be deployed to overseas sites in violation of international sanctions, according to a Japanese press report.

Workers remain in countries like China, Syria, Vietnam and Russia, partly due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Sankei Shimbun reported Thursday. North Korea closed its borders in late January. Other countries have restricted movement across borders.

The report of violations were mentioned in an interim report by an independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions on Monday, according to the Sankei.

North Korean guest workers hold various occupations, including in food services, medicine, and construction

U.N. member states like Russia may be retaining the services of North Korean laborers for reasons other than COVID-19. They represent a cheap and efficient workforce, experts tell the Sankei.

All U.N. member states were required to repatriate North Korean workers at the end of 2019. They were also required to submit a status report at the end of March, but less than 20% of member states, 40 countries in total, have submitted reports.

In countries like China and Syria, some workforce contracts have been renewed. A firm in Syria reportedly requested the dispatch of at least 800 North Korean workers to construction sites in October 2019, according to the Sankei.

North Korean workers, a critical source of foreign currency, were estimated to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars for the Kim Jong Un regime in 2015 before sanctions.

North Korea's economy has been severely impacted by COVID-19, according to new research from Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification, Yonhap reported Thursday.

The report estimates North Korea exported only $27 million of goods to China, its principal trading partner, in the first half of the year, while importing $383 million of goods, in the first half of 2020.

USDA: 60% of North Koreans are food insecure

Some 60 percent of North Koreans are food-insecure according to a new assessment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Photo by KCNA/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Some 60% of North Koreans are suffering food insecurity, according to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic slightly exacerbating the already dire situation.

The report, "International Food Security Assessment, 2020-30," found that 15.3 million North Koreans, or 59.8% of the population, are food-insecure in 2020.

"An estimated 59.2% of North Korea's population is food-insecure in 2020, rising slightly to 59.8% when the effects of the COVID-19 macro shock are taken into account," the report said.

The total for 2020 represents an increase of 700,000 people from last year's assessment, which found 57.3% of North Korea's population, or 14.6 million people, to be food-insecure in 2019.

North Korea ranks alongside Afghanistan and Yemen as the most food-insecure countries in Asia, according to the report, which was released this week.

The USDA assessment defines a daily intake of 2,100 calories as necessary to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle and said that North Korea is running a per capita deficit of 430 calories.

In June, a United Nations human rights expert on North Korea expressed concern over "a further deepening of food shortages and widespread food insecurity" worsened by border closures with China that began in January due to COVID-19.

"[North Korea's] trade with China in March and April declined by over 90% following the border shutdown," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, in a statement.

Quintana said that "an increasing number of families eat only twice a day, or eat only corn, and there are reports that some are starving."

The human rights expert also pointed to "the detrimental impact" of international sanctions placed on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and urged the U.N. Security Council to reconsider the sanctions.

Recent flooding following weeks of heavy downpours has also raised concerns over food supplies in North Korea, as miles of crops were reported submerged.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme said in a report last year that 10.1 million North Koreans were in need of humanitarian assistance and found that only 7% of households in the country had an acceptable diet with a frequent intake of high-protein foods and fruits.

North Korea faces chronic food shortages and suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s that some estimates claim resulted in the deaths of more than 3 million people.

The new USDA assessment projects that North Korea's food-insecure population would decline to 44.9% in 2030, due to factors such as falling grain prices and slowing population growth. The caloric gap would also diminish from 430 in 2020 to 368 to 2030, the report said.

Overall, the number of food-insecure people across the 76 low-and middle-income countries covered in the report was estimated at 844.3 million, an increase of 83.5 million, or 11%, due to COVID-19 income shock.