Editor’s note: This is the second article in a three-part series on North Korea’s overseas laborers. Part 1 can be read here and Part 2 can be read here.

North Koreans have been prohibited from working abroad for over four years now, ever since U.N. Security Council Resolution 2397 required all countries to send back such laborers by the end of 2019. 

But while the Security Council left little confusion about the legal status of DPRK workers, questions about whether it’s actually in these North Koreans’ interest to work abroad — despite the human rights abuses