This dissertation hypothesizes that North Korean overseas workers have been dispatched so as to accomplish their own purposes and to fulfill their labor right. In this regards it problematizes they were compelled to earn foreign currency for their Dear Leader.
North Korean government declares to have accomplished a self-supporting economy to date, nevertheless it intrinsically lacks of self sufficient economy. As a result it has contributed to the functions of World Capitalist System especially, in the low income and unskilled labor market.
The UN Security Council made a couple of resolutions to ban overseas work of North Korean nationals based on the ground that they are exploited in the sweatshops as the regime’s slave laborers. This assertion is based upon the typical characteristics in the second tier job market such as low-wage jobs or immigration workers workplaces. Succeeding studies demonstrate that North Korean overseas workers voluntarily or rather actively went abroad by bribing relevant administrators at all cost, and after returning home from the first dispatch they advanced to second, third, and even fourth dispatch.
The International Labor Organization has established a standard that miserable labor circumstances such as receiving under the minimum wage and being in a dangerous work place alone do not constitute as forced labor situation particularly when the workers of that job were not able to find better occupation.
North Korean workers did not get a higher income or was not in a safer working environment when they were in their home country, and majority of them went to work compulsorily to avoid punishment. This reality proves that jobs in overseas countries guarantees North Korean workers the freedom of choosing one’s occupation and and right to get a reasonable salary. Also North Korean workers can gain access to outside information, freedom of movement and privacy, and many of the rights in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
International human rights organizations address the situation that North Korean overseas workers work overtime on a daily basis, and they pay substantial amount of their income as a mandatory tax for the North Korean regime could be regarded as forced labor. This assertion excluded the practices that North Korean overseas workers were mainly engaged in logging or construction work and those kinds of workers are not paid by hour but by the amount of work they actually performed. Logically if they finish work earlier, they receive higher paycheck when the income is calculated per hour.
North Korean overseas workers were charged expenses like any other workers such as room and food expenses, transportation fee, insurance fee, and Party membership fee if they have the membership. From among these expenses North Korean overseas company deducted more than half of the each workers’ pay as National Planning Fund, and this addresses a question that how much tax a government can charge to its citizen. In majority countries there hardly exist consent between citizen and the government with regard to income tax, medical insurance fee, pension fee, and many other mandatory deductions from salary. Socialist states are obliged to ensure minimum standard of living condition to its citizen and the duty demands more finances than ordinary developing countries.
According to the International Labor Organization’s forced labor indicators, there are several practices to be improved in North Korean overseas work such as lack of signing up labor contract and providing direct payment in a monthly basis, but these circumstances do not constitute as main reasons for forced labor situation and function as justification for restricting of North Korean overseas work. The UN Security Council resolutions have prevented the only legal way to leave country for North Korean citizen unless they have relatives in China, consequently they are not able to accumulate a low level capital and take the lead for further economic development and reform in their home country. While the international community concentrates on regime change and dismantling nuclear weapons in North Korea, North Korean citizen are infringed on human rights, especially the right to work, access to uncensored outside information, and have a proper standard of living. Above all things, human rights should not be used as a tool to exert maximum pressure to a certain regime for political reasons.
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