\n<\/p>\n
They spent up to 10 years at sea, toiling in some of the harshest conditions distant-water fishing crews \u200bcan face. Many never set foot on land because their Chinese captains did not want them to be seen by the port authorities. Most of their salaries went directly to their government, and some of their catch has likely ended up on dining tables in Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n
These were North Koreans assigned by their government to work on board Chinese tuna longliners operating in the Indian Ocean, according to a report<\/a> \u200bpublished on Monday by the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation<\/a>. <\/em>Through them, North Korea\u2019s leader, Kim Jong-un, established a new source of revenue \u200bfor his cash-strapped regime.<\/p>\n The United Nations bans member states from hiring North Korean workers because its Security Council says<\/a> Mr. Kim\u2019s government uses them to raise funds for its nuclear weapons program. But Mr. Kim sends tens of thousands of his people abroad to earn cash and other benefits for his regime.<\/a><\/p>\n They have worked in factories and restaurants in China, logging camps and construction sites in Russia and farms and shipyards in Eastern Europe<\/a>\u200b. They have sweated on construction sites in the Middle East<\/a> and built monuments<\/a> for dictators in Africa. An estimated 11,000 North Koreans were sent to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Until now, the fate of North Korean fishermen has drawn little global attention because they were in vast oceans, cut off from the rest of the world and even their own families for years at a time.<\/p>\n The conditions they faced \u201cwould constitute forced labor of a magnitude that surpasses much of that witnessed in a global fishing industry already replete with abuse,\u201d the foundation said in its report, shared with The New York Times ahead of its publication.<\/p>\n Regulatory and other data available suggested that the products from these ships may be entering the European, British and Asian markets, the foundation said. The group discovered at least 12 Chinese-flagged tuna longliners using North Korean labor between 2019 and last year, and four of them were authorized to export fish to Europe and the United Kingdom, it said. Carrier ships suspected of collecting fish from these Chinese vessels at sea have visited markets in Asia, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, it said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was your husband, brother, father, son who\u2019s being held on a vessel for months or years at sea with no option to get off, I think you can understand what it means and how this product is being produced and why we shouldn\u2019t be eating it,\u201d said Steve Trent, the foundation\u2019s CEO. \u201cThese laborers are not free to choose how and when they work. They\u2019re being coerced onto these vessels and kept there.\u201d<\/p>\n The foundation, which campaigns on environmental and human rights issues, based its findings on evidence that included interviews with 19 Indonesian and Filipino shipmates who said they had worked with North Koreans. Its investigators also obtained video clips that mentioned North Koreans being on board and showed shipmates speaking in Korean. Three of the Indonesian seamen also spoke separately to The New York Times. The Times is not revealing their identities because they could work again on Chinese fishing vessels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Crew members said they communicated with the North Koreans using body language and bits of Mandarin and each other\u2019s languages that they picked up while working together.<\/p>\n They told how North Korean crews were usually transferred to sister vessels at sea before their ships docked, and moved back again later. Crewmen who landed could use their mobile phones to call families, but the North Koreans \u200bdid not even have mobile phones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If their presence was discovered by foreign port authorities, it could create legal trouble for their Chinese captain: In December 2022, news media in Mauritius reported<\/a> the arrest of six North Korean workers and the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel.<\/p>\n \u201cI docked in Somalia, Mauritius, Australia, Madagascar and Somalia again, and the North Koreans were always transferred,\u201d said a former Indonesian fisherman who said he worked with six North Koreans from late 2022 to last June. \u201cOne of them told me that he has a wife whom he never contacted during the seven years he\u2019s been gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On these Chinese ships, most crew members had their passports taken so they could not abscond. They caught only five to six hours of sleep a day, but the North Koreans were often the most skilled workers on board because of the time they had spent at sea. The second former Indonesian fisherman remembered how the North Koreans on his ship urged others to work faster, shouting the North Korean phrase for \u201churry up\u201d: ppalliharaThe pandemic extended the time at sea for some North Koreans as their country kept its borders closed until late 2023. They worked through the pandemic, some transferring to other Chinese ships midocean after their three- or four-year-contract ended.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir families don\u2019t have any idea whether they are still alive or not,\u201d said the third Indonesian fisherman, who said he had worked with three North Koreans. \u201cThey never said how they felt. But I can\u2019t imagine how you didn\u2019t set foot on land for eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n The Indonesian crewmen earned about $330 per month but did not know how much the North Koreans made. The North Koreans told them that their \u200bsalaries went straight to their government. One Indonesian crewman said the North Koreans lived only on bonuses they earned. Another said they were allowed to keep $50 of their salary.<\/p>\n \u201cThey really save up all the money,\u201d one of the Indonesian fisherman said. \u201cThey showed me all the cents they collected.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chinese distant-water fleet is by far the world\u2019s largest.\u200b The foundation\u200b said it could not estimate how many North Koreans were working on Chinese fishing vessels around the world\u200b until a more extensive study was done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For more than three decades, North Korea has sent workers abroad, earning up to billions of dollars a year, according to South Korean estimates.<\/p>\n In 2017, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution \u200brequiring U.N. member countries to expel North Korean workers by the end of 2019. But more than 100,000 North Koreans were still working in 40 countries, a U.N. panel of experts reported<\/a> last year.\u200b<\/p>\n North Korean workers are \u200brequired to spy on each other when they go abroad and to maintain a life of indoctrination.<\/p>\n The North Koreans\u2019 former shipmates remembered them showing videos of military parades and their leader, Mr. Kim, giving speeches. They often put on their \u200bbest clothes, hung their flag and sang, while standing straight. \u200b<\/p>\n But their former shipmates could tell how homesick the North Koreans were. One of the Indonesian shipmates recalled a time when a North Korean colleague was finally allowed to go home.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was so excited and anxious that when we told him to get some rest, go to sleep, he refused,\u201d he said. \u201cHe just sat there out on the deck watching other crews working.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n