North Korea continues to use illegal workers overseas to fund its weapons program. This is what the United States affirms in a joint declaration with South Korea and Japan, in order to call for the respect of the UN sanctions with regard to the North Korean regime. The trilateral statement calling for the workers’ immediate repatriation also stresses the significance of Pyongyang’s cyberattack program in recent months.
With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicholas Rocca
It is a historical practice of the regime that the Japanese American and South Korean emissaries for North Korea denounce. The US Mission to the United Nations estimated that there were 100,000 North Korean workers overseas before the pandemic. Whether they are lumberjacks, construction workers or restaurateurs, they work mainly in China and Russia, but also in Africa, Kuwait, Qatar and even Mongolia.
Prohibited practice
This is one of the means put in place by the regime to bring foreign currency into the country. But, as of 2017, the practice is prohibited by UN sanctions, and, since 2019, member states must repatriate North Korean workers to their country. But in 2020, in the face of the pandemic, North Korea closed down and since then hardly anyone crosses borders legally.
And the hackers?
It’s hard to imagine that these tens of thousands of workers have all gone home. During a trilateral meeting, this Friday, April 7, the emissaries from Seoul, Tokyo and Washington also insist on other employees of the regime who sometimes officiate abroad: the hackers. Pyongyang allegedly stole up to $1.7 billion in cryptocurrencies last year.