North Korean workers in China are complaining of severe stress due to continued delays in their return home and their stifling lives confined to their dormitories and factories.
A source in China said Wednesday that a North Korean worker at a garment factory in China’s Liaoning province attempted to take her own life in early August.
The worker, a woman in her early 30s who was sent to China before North Korea closed its border in response to COVID-19, had been working in China for more than five years.
Most North Korean workers, cut off from the outside world for years in their tightly controlled dormitories, want to return home as soon as possible.
The woman had expected to return home early this year and had been preparing since last year. However, as her return date from China was repeatedly delayed, she complained to her co-workers several times about extreme stress, telling them it was “too painful just to work like this all day.”
In early August, she attempted suicide. Fortunately, her co-workers found her on the floor and immediately rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she regained consciousness and is now safe.
“Since last year, she had been excited to go home soon and bought gifts for her entire family, but not knowing when she would return, she gave up hope and attempted suicide,” the source said.
Replacement of workers has been slow
North Korean workers, who suffer long hours in a tightly controlled environment, live in hope of returning home soon. But as their departure is continually delayed with no promised date of return, some workers even try to take their own lives.
As recently as last year, most people believed that the workers stranded in China would soon be replaced as North Korea eased its border closures and trade between the North and China expanded. But the process of replacing workers has been slow.
New North Korean workers have entered China through Jilin province, where overland trade between the North and China has been relatively brisk, but they have mostly arrived in small groups of less than 100.
With so few new workers arriving, sending existing workers back to North Korea would disrupt factory operations in China and hurt the North Korean government’s foreign exchange earnings. For this reason, North Korea appears to be delaying the repatriation of the workers.
North Korean trading companies in China have only intermittently repatriated workers who are in such poor health that they can no longer work, the source said.
Since the suicide attempt, officials in charge of managing the workers have been looking for ways to relieve the workers’ stress and psychological discomfort.
“They have tried several things, including slaughtering a pig to add pork to the workers’ meager meals of soybean paste soup and stir-fried vegetables, and increasing their leisure time,” the source said. “Because the officials could be blamed and punished for such incidents, they are doing everything they can to appease the workers and cover up the matter.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
September 27, 2024 at 12:00PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)