Kuwait: Still granting N. Korea worker visas
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Stalwart U.S. ally Kuwait will continue to grant visas to North Korean laborers whose wages allegedly aid Pyongyang in evading international sanctions, its government told The Associated Press on Thursday before its ruler travels to Washington to meet President Donald Trump.
In a statement, Kuwait also said it never stopped issuing work visas for North Koreans, rebutting a State Department human trafficking report released in June that applauded the Mideast nation for taking steps to limit their presence.
Kuwait’s response shows the challenge the U.S. faces in trying to convince Gulf nations to cut back on using North Korean workers on major construction projects and to close governmentrun restaurants in the region. Analysts say the money earned from those enterprises helps Pyongyang buy luxury goods and build the missiles it now uses to threaten the U.S. territory of Guam, as well as other parts of the U.S. and America’s Asian allies.
Kuwait hosts 6,064 North Korean laborers, the country’s Public Authority of Manpower said in a statement sent to the AP.
Kuwait dismissed the notion it cut off the laborers from coming to its construction sites.
“There are no plans to expel North Korean laborers and Kuwait has never done so,” the statement said.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauer said Thursday that North Korean workers in Kuwait “would obviously be a concern to us.”
“The government of Kuwait will be taking further measures in response to the dangerous and provocative behavior of DPRK regime within the coming days, we are told,” she said, using an acronym for North Korea.
Most North Korean workers in the Gulf earn around $1,000 a month.