North Korean authorities have begun criticizing enterprises’ customary practice of aekbeori—allowing workers to skip workplace attendance to pursue private commercial activities in return for a set payment—ahead of the Ninth Party Congress.
“Late last month, the case of a worker at a mining equipment factory in Chongjin who was engaged in aekbeori and refused to return even after being ordered to do so was brought before the factory’s party committee,” a source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK. “Ultimately, a sectional party secretary at the factory was punished with three months of unpaid labor for permitting 8.3 labor.”
So-called 8.3 labor, or aekbeori, is when workers attend their official workplaces only on paper, paying a set monthly sum to their employer while pursuing side businesses instead.
This worker was repeatedly ordered to report for work but ultimately refused to show up. His coworkers showed up at his house and advised him to pretend to obey, but he still refused.
According to the source, authorities have been intensively surveying attendance rates at factories and enterprises and the state of 8.3 labor since the fourth quarter of last year.
Enterprise party committees have been ordered by the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea and Socialist Patriotic Youth League to raise workplace attendance to 100%. In response, workplaces and work teams send daily attendance reports to their party organizations.
Daily NK previously reported that the Socialist Patriotic Youth League had moved to restrict young people from engaging in aekbeori to increase workplace attendance among youth.
Even at the mining equipment factory in question, managers were surveying workplace attendance in accordance with that measure when they discovered the problematic worker.
Public cynicism about selective punishment
When the public learned that even a party secretary at the mining equipment company was punished for permitting 8.3 labor, they criticized the collusion between officials and 8.3 workers.
Workers expressed skepticism, saying the laborer in question “must have had somebody powerful behind him that he refused to report to work to the very end,” and that the punished party secretary “must have collected a lot of bribes because of that.”
However, this sort of 8.3 labor and official collusion is so customary that it exists at most enterprises.
“The official monthly salary of enterprise officials is about 200,000 North Korean won—no more than 50 to 60 Chinese yuan (roughly $7-$8),” the source said. “However, because families need more than 500 yuan ($69) to survive, not even officials can live on their salaries alone.”
“Because even officials need money, the custom of taking bribes from workers engaged in aekbeori has continued,” the source said. “Because this practice happens in all enterprises, it’s extraordinary that an official was punished at the organizational level for permitting somebody to engage in aekbeori work.”
However, people say this crackdown on 8.3 work is only temporary, and that authorities will have a hard time completely rooting it out of North Korean society.
“The state is making an issue of 8.3 work as it calls for establishing worker discipline and normalizing production ahead of the party congress,” the source said. “After being tolerated for years, 8.3 work won’t disappear overnight.”
January 13, 2026 at 05:26AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)