Report: N. Koreans prep seafood for U.S.
HUNCHUN, China — Some of the seafood sold in the United States is subsidizing the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an Associated Press investigation has found.
At a time when North Korea is banned from selling almost anything, the country is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide to bring in an estimated $200 million to $500 million a year. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion.
While North Korean workers have been documented overseas, the AP investigation reveals that some products they make go to the United States. AP also tracked products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.
At Chinese factories, North
Korean workers aren’t allowed to leave their compounds without permission, and must step from housing to factories in pairs or groups, with North Korean minders. They receive a fraction of their salaries, while the rest — as much as 70 percent — is taken by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government.
John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, urged its 300 members, including the largest seafood importers in the U.S., to “ensure that wages go to the workers and are not siphoned off to support a dangerous dictator.”
Besides seafood, AP found North Korean laborers making wood flooring and sewing garments in Chinese factories. Those industries also export to the United States, but AP did not track specific shipments except for seafood.
American companies aren’t allowed to import products made by North Korean workers anywhere in the world, and companies doing business with them could face criminal charges for using North Korean workers or materially benefiting from their work. (The AP employs a small number of support staff in its Pyongyang bureau under a waiver granted by the U.S. government to allow the flow of news and information.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, responsible for
enforcing the law, did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is a state-sponsored scheme to export folks who are in bonded labor,” said Luis C. XdeBaca, former U.S. ambassador for human trafficking issues. “It’s supporting a repressive regime.”
Western companies involved that responded to AP said forced labor and potential support for North Korea was unacceptable in their supply chains. They said they’d investigate, and some said they’d already cut off ties with suppliers.
100,000 Meanwhile,North Koreansas many continue as to work in construction in the Persian Gulf states, shipbuilding in Poland, logging in Russia and on fishing boats in Uruguay. New U.N. sanctions bar countries from expanding their North Korean workforce. Despite the pay and restrictions, the jobs abroad are highly coveted among North Koreans.
Roughly 3,000 North Koreans are believed to work in Hunchun, a Chinese industrial hub near the North Korean and Russian borders.
At some factories, laborers worked hunched over tables
as slogans North blasted Korean from politicalloudspeakers. When a reporter approached a group of North Koreans — women in tight, bright polyester clothes preparing a meal at a garment factory — one confirmed that she and some others were from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Then a minder arrived, ordering: “Don’t talk to him!”
It’s unknown what conditions are like in every factory, but AP reporters saw North Korean laborers living and working in several facilities, including joint venture Hunchun Dongyang Seafood Industry & Trade Co. Ltd. & Hunchun Pagoda Industry Co. Ltd., distributed globally by Ocean One Enterprise; Yantai Dachen Hunchun Seafood Products, and Yanbian Shenghai the Korean Dongyang’sQizhen They’re Despite IndustryU.S. from denied workers,China, gettingAP& managerTradethat seeing Russia Hunchuntheir they Co. NorthZhuseafood hireLtd. and them ShippingThe and didn’t other refused comment.records Chineseto give show companiesdetails. more thanof seafood100 cargo were containers sent to year the from U.S. the and factories Canada wherethis North Koreans were working in China, including packages of snow crab, salmon fillets and squid rings.
One importer, The Fishin’ Co. in Munhall, Pa., said it cut ties with Hunchun processors
and got its last shipment this summer. Seafood can remain in the supply chain for more than a year.
Often the fish arrives in generic packaging. But some were already branded in China with familiar names like WalMart or Sea Queen, which is sold exclusively at Aldi supermarkets. There’s no way to say where a particular package ends up, nor what percentage of a factory’s products wind up in the U.S.
Wal-Mart spokesman Marilee McInnis said company officials banned their suppliers from getting seafood processed at a Hunchun plant a year ago after an audit revealed potential issues with migrant workers.
“Combatting forced labor is a complex problem that no one company, industry, or government can tackle alone,” she said.
Aldi did not comment. Some U.S. companies had indirect ties to North Korean laborers in Hunchun. Customs records indicate that Chicken of the Sea, owned by Thai Union, did business with sister companies of the Hunchun factories in another part of China. Thai Union said the sister company they do business with meets all of their fair labor standards, and should not be penalized just because they have the same owner.