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In-hua Kim
In-hua Kim is a pseudonym for a North Korean defector writer. She left the DPRK in 2018, and now resides in South Korea.
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Ask A North Korean Ask a North Korean: how do you feel about the UN ban on overseas workers?"I couldn't help but sigh at the news that North Korean overseas workers were being sent back to North Korea" In-hua Kim December 23, 2019 NK News Hello NK News readers! And welcome to Ask a North Korean, the feature where you can ask our North Korean writers your questions about life on the ground in the DPRK. Today, In-hua Kim discusses life as a North Korean working overseas. As she points out, despite the difficult conditions workers may face, their positions are usually highly-sought after because of the opportunity to make more money than they would otherwise back in North Korea. This article is also rather timely: the deadline for North Korean overseas laborers to be sent back to the DPRK, set by the UN Security Council in 2017, was only just yesterday, on December 22 2019. Whether or not the ban will achieve its desired effect remains to be seen, but it’s certainly going to have a big impact on those being sent home and their families. Editor’s note: In-hua refers to the ‘Soviet Union’ and ‘Soviets’ in this piece, despite the Soviet Union having collapsed in 1991. She means ‘Russia,’ but some older Koreans still use the Korean word for the Soviet Union (쏘련) to refer to both the USSR and present-day Russia. We’ve left it as it is, as it’s an interesting little cultural detail! Got a question for In-hua? Email it to [email protected] with your name and city. We’ll be publishing the best ones. I couldn’t help but sigh at the news that North Korean overseas workers were being sent back to North Korea. I thought of their poor families back home who would be waiting for them to return with money. They’re now going to be facing much harsher lives than the ones they’ve lived so far. My sisters and their husbands come to mind. Their two brothers-in-law went to Russia for work in the 1990s. My older brother was a forest laborer, but farmed potatoes to feed his family when he was off work. He always tried hard to get a high yield, but I guess he just wasn’t cut out for farming. He only managed to harvest one or two sacks of potatoes, one sack being 50 kg, while others could produce a couple more. Considering that potato farming was his side-job it wasn’t a bad effort, but it wasn’t enough to fill the stomachs of his growing children. Having struggled for a while, one day he suggested to his wife, my sister, that he go to the Soviet Union. She responded without hesitation: “Please, yes. Make lots of money there so we too can have a better life.” Unlike my other siblings, my sister was born and raised in Pyongyang. She stayed behind with my grandmother, who lived in the outskirts of Pyongyang, when the rest of us moved to Hyesan with my parents. Having spent her formative years with my grandmother, the disastrous 1990s in North Korea were even more unbearable for her than for the rest of us. So the thought of her husband earning a bit more money in the Soviet Union really excited her. Looking over at his sleeping children, my brother-in-law made up his mind to go. The General Bureau of Forestry (림업총국) in Yeonhungdong (연흥동), Hyesan selects laborers to go overseas. My brother secured his spot, in the remote eastern city of Vladivostok, thanks to my father’s connections and a $100 bribe. While he was gone during his three-year contract, my sister raised the children by herself, working at the management office for historic sites. Since there was no salary for this government job though, she did farming on the side. Her in-laws also supported her as much as they could. She waited and waited for her husband’s return. Other workers began sending a little money home around a year after they had left North Korea, but she received nothing from her husband: no news, letters, let alone money. It was 3 years and 7 months before he finally returned. My sister just grabbed him and wailed because by then all she wanted was getting him back. I was astounded when I later found out that the total amount he earned during that time was only $3,000.
The following is his account: The region to which we were taken was full of dense forest and expansive land. It was a remote area with few Soviets around. Single-storied accommodation for us North Korean laborers could be seen here and there. Inside our lodgings, wooden bunk beds were placed in a long row and we lay close to one another like soldiers. Meals were OK. Our job was sawing logs. Not even for one moment did I ever forget my wife and two children while chopping down trees in those snow-covered fields. The thought of returning home with lots of money was what kept me going. On pay day, however, we didn’t receive any money, but a check (돈표) that could be exchanged in North Korea. When the contract ends, workers are first sent to Pyongyang to undergo an examination of life overseas. During this review period, the checks (our salaries) are converted into cash, but not entirely: 10% is deducted and half of the remaining amount is paid with goods at Soviet shops that are located in each province. Aware of this system, we worked to earn money on the side at a farm or ranch on holidays. Some hunted musk deer for musk, coming up with a variety of methods to smuggle it. I myself sold liquor and cigarettes. A quota was used to limit Soviets, per person, to how many cigarettes they could buy. I don’t know if my foreign looks helped, but I usually had no problem purchasing cigarettes at the store. After having bought them from different stores, I sold them to the locals for a profit. When I was caught by the police they would release me, knowing that I was North Korean. They didn’t regulate North Koreans. I got the seed money to buy cigarettes by running errands for the Soviets. Then I started selling liquor. Using the money I earned from selling cigarettes, I bought some rice, steamed it in a big kiln and mixed it with leaven, then put it in a thick plastic bag and buried it underground to let it ripen. It actually tasted pretty good and had a high percentage of alcohol. Soviets weren’t able to buy alcohol freely (like the cigarettes), so liquor made by North Koreans would sell well, even if it was pricier. The $3,000 that my brother-in-law brought home was what he earned on the side by selling cigarettes and liquor during what was supposed to be his rest time. The salary he earned toiling in the fields was largely extorted by the North Korean government. From the Soviet shop, where the laborers traded their checks for goods, he got a Chinese sewing machine, a television, clothes, and cotton batting which he gave to me as a gift. I felt sorry receiving it because I knew that he hadn’t returned with much money, but he insisted, telling me to make a blanket with it. My younger brother-in-law, however, made a lot of money in the Soviet Union. He’s sociable and was a driver, which I think may have helped him get a better position out there. His task was to transport and measure the logs that North Koreans had cut down. He befriended a female coworker, Lena, who gave him dollars and gifts upon his departure. He even brought home a picture he took with her. He too received a check with which he traded for household goods, one of which was a color television, rare back then in North Korea. North Koreans accept that their hard-earned salaries are extorted by the government. At least working overseas will leave you with something, as opposed to those working back home who receive no rations or money. That’s why people pay bribes to be sent overseas.
A surgeon I knew was dispatched to Libya with his wife as part of a medical unit. I was alarmed when I saw them in January 2012, only a little over a year since they left, because they had originally gone on a three-year contract. His wife said that his salary had been so meager that they weren’t able to save anything. She eventually ended up asking the North Korean embassy staff in Libya if it would be OK to sell some Korean dishes, like tofubab and kimchi, and was given the go-ahead. Libyans liked the spicy food. She was making good business, until one day in December 2011 they got a phone call telling them to gather at the embassy by 8am. She and her husband headed to the embassy without thinking much of the call, even preparing ingredients to make some more tofubab after the meeting when she returned to the accommodation. When everyone had arrived at the embassy, they and the embassy staff were put on a bus. She assumed that there must be some kind of event, hoping that it wouldn’t last too long. To their surprise though, the bus took them to the airport. The embassy staff told them that everyone was being repatriated and that their belongings would be packed up by the embassy and shipped back to North Korea. It was only after they landed in Pyongyang that they learned Kim Jong Il had died. Their luggage arrived when they were observing a month-long remembrance and their overseas workers’ examination period. She almost lost her mind when she saw nothing except one suitcase of personal belongings had been shipped. The government paid for her husband’s salary for the time he worked, but everything she had earned on the side was lost. I could feel her pain. They had paid bribes to be sent to Libya because they heard that being a doctor overseas is profitable. But their dreams were now shattered. As I write this, I realize once again how fortunate and thankful I am that I now live in South Korea. Translated by Jihye Park Edited by James Fretwell Hello NK News readers! And welcome to Ask a North Korean, the feature where you can ask our North Korean writers your questions about life on the ground in the DPRK. Today, In-hua Kim discusses life as a North Korean working overseas. As she points out, despite the difficult conditions workers may face, their positions are usually highly-sought after because of the opportunity to make more money than they would otherwise back in North Korea. Become a member for less
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In-hua Kim is a pseudonym for a North Korean defector writer. She left the DPRK in 2018, and now resides in South Korea.
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