In my view, I think North Korea is the world’s largest illegal job agency. It’s a company. The North Korean's final workday is recorded accurately in the investigative report. The shift begins as it does everyday at six in the morning. The 41-year-old labourer is welding pipes in the stern of the Norwegian ship, the Polar Empress. Suddenly, his clothes begin to burn. But only after crawling out of the tank on all fours completely engulfed in flames, does a Polish co-worker hurry over to help him. He tries to put out the flames with fire extinguishers and water bottles. However, the labourer’s clothing continuesly reignites, until he can no longer be saved. He dies one day later in a Polish hospital. 95% of his skin was burned. I meet with the labourer inspector, who is responsible for investigating the accident. The labourer’s body was sent back to North Korea. together with 637 euros for his family. You may have heard of North Korean forced labourers from reports about labour camps in Russia or from Qatar, where stadiums are being built for the FIFA World Cup. But could there be North Korean forced labourers in Poland, in the middle of the EU? On its website, the CRIST shipyard advertises that they build ships for various clients throughout Europe. And we know that North Koreans are still working here today. We went to speak directly with the labourers to find out what their working conditions are really like. In order to protect the labourer’s identity, we’ve concealed his face and altered his voice. OK. Let's go. Thanks. The North Korean man who died in the accident also worked for the company Armex. We wanted to find out how this kind of accident could have happened and how the laborers are paid so we asked the company for an interview But the manging director, Cecylia Kowalska, refused to talk to us. So, we tried to get a hold of her in her office We weren't able to find Cecylia Kowalska but we discovered that she's the managing director of another company it's called Alson and it employs North Korean laborers at the Nauta shipyard. Lately, a mine hunting vessel belonging to the French navy has been repaired in the Nauta shipyard. In 2015, the North Koreans worked on constructing a supply ship meant to be deployed to a British off shore wind park We wait outside the ship yard to talk to North Korean laborers First to leave the site is a man who looks conspicuously different to a normal worker. The man makes it clear to us that he doesn't want to answer any questions Then, he calls another colleague for help. Together, they monitor the exit of the shipyard Since, we can no longer talk to the laborers without being watched we decide to leave. What are the objectives of your working group and why was it created? It was created because we heard about the DPRK forced labour in the European Union which is well, strange to say the least, it took me by surprise Most of the DPRK laborers, they are, to a certain extent a leftover from the Cold War period Under Kim Jong-Un, this practice has seen a huge revival. Why does North Korea send laborers abroad? In my view, I think, North Korea is the world's largest illegal job agency There is no real North Korean states There is North Korea or Pyongyang, Incorporated It's a company. Due to international sanctions, the regime has hardly any opportunities to earn foreign currency That's why Kim Jong-Un is sending laborers abroad primarily to China and Russia. Approximately 50,000 North Koreans are doing forced labor generating up to 2 billion dollars, according to the UN. Poland is especially important for North Korea because companies here pay the highest rates, comparatively. Cecylia Kowalska isn't only the managing director of Armex and Alson. She's also involved in a 3rd company, called Wonye, with 2 North Korean partners. We head to Wonye's office to see if we can find Kowalska there. We don't meet anyone in the office complex Instead, we find out more about one of Ms. Kowalska's business partners. His name Kang Hung Gu and he was born in 1961. In a population register smuggled out of North Korea we find only one Kang Hong Gu with the same birth date. In 2004, this man was the commander of a brigade in North Korea. We want to know what such a high ranking member of the North Korean regime is doing in Poland and so we head to the address where he is registered, according to Polish authorities But none of the gas station employees have ever heard of him or of Wonye. So, we ask village residents if they have ever seen North Koreans in their area. And they live here? We didn't find Kang Hong Gu but apparently North Korean laborers don't just work in shipyards they also work in agriculture. We wanted to know why Cecylia Kowalska
has a company with a North Korean who, allegedly, is a high ranking member of the North Korean regime. We head back to Gdansk and try again to find her at her office. Cecylia Kowalska says she pays each laborer in cash but on a pay stub from 2014, it looks like the same person signed for all the North Korean laborers On top of that, one of the laborers told us outside the shipyard that he doesn't receive his salary from Armex but from a totally different company. Based on what the pay stub says, it's clear the North Koreans worked on ships belonging to Danish and Norwegian shipping companies. According to the labor inspection record the company Armex worked together with the North Korean company Rungrado General Trading Corporation, which is the same company that also sends construction workers from North Korea to other Polish cities. Since, there's no way to gain access to the construction site to talk to the laborers there, I asked the security guard. The construction company Atal declined to give us an interview but they inform us in writing that it isn't them but rather a subsidiary, J.P. Construct,
that would work with North Koreans. But the business is still in the family, The managing director of J.P. Construct is the son of the Atal chairman. We have received reports from inspections carried out by the labor inspectors from 2013 to 2015. According to these documents, the North Korean company, Rungrado Trading sent welders to Cecylia Kowalska's company Armex who then put them to work in the shipyards. The same documents show that Rungrado Trading also set construction workers to the company J.P. Construct who then employed them on the building sites of the construction company Atal In return, Rungrado Training received money. Rungrado Trading is a state owned company run by the North Korean Worker's Party whose chairman is dictator, Kim Jong-Un. It seems that most, if not all, of the money that's being earned goes to the state rather directly or through a company that's owned by the State A North Korean laborer in Europe earns about 80 to 160 dollars per month that's what he keeps or she keeps himself if he or she is lucky But they're paid much more than that and that money goes straight into the pocket of the North Korean State. Rungrado Trading describes itself, in an advertising brochure as a company that trades in cosmetics, mineral water, and clothing. However, the UN suspects Rungrado Trading of being involved in smuggling parts of SCAT missiles to Egypt. And it's precisely this company that's sending laborers to Poland. We wanted to find out how it's at all possible that North Koreans can work in Poland. So, we met the deputy director of the regional government office responsible for handing out working permits to foreigners We weren't able to find out why the authorities apparently don't differentiate between two countries. But our official confirmed that North Koreans can work in Poland in a completely legal way. It makes Poland the only country in the EU, besides Malta, where that's possible. We went to the National Labor Inspector at PIP. Over the last 5 years, it has inspected a dozen companies where North Koreans worked. We traveled to another big construction site to see how the working conditions are for North Koreans here. Atal is one of the leading Polish construction companies and specialize primarily in the construction of luxury apartments. When Polish Newsweek journalists ask about working with North Korea Atal answered in February, 2016: "Running an ethical business primarily means lawful trade." This seems to imply that as long as you follow the law working together with an inhumane dictatorship would be OK. The laborers in Wroclaw and Warsaw seem to work 12 hours non-stop each day that's only allowed if the laborers are compensated for over time. We want to know where and how the laborers live so we follow their bus. Since it was impossible to get into the compound to speak to the workers we call a North Korean laborer who gave us his number. In order to find out what kind of conditions North Koreans work in abroad, we meet the former guard of a prison camp for political dissidence. Ahn Myung Chul fled North Korea and now runs an aid organisation that draws attention to the forced laborer situation. Even the Polish authorities confirm that the North Koreans live in isolation. The Border Patrol was quoted in Poland's Newsweek magazine as saying: "They are an isolated crew that doesn't take advantage of their right to move freely within our country and all activities could only be undertaken in the presence of an appointed representative who acts as a minder." We wanted to find out more about it from the authorities, but they declined to give us an interview. We make an appointment with Kim Seung Cheol, who is one of the very few North Koreans who fled while working in Russia, he explains to us why he thinks so few laborers flee. A North Korean also fled during his stay in Poland last year the Polish Foreigners Registration Office confirms that he received asylum but doesn't want to say anything further about it. This basically means that North Korea can dispatch laborers to Poland completely legally and that the same laborers can get asylum if they no longer want to be exploited as forced laborers in the very same country. According to the International Labor Organization aspects of forced labor include; threats of punishment, excessive over time, deprevation of wages, and being forced to live in isolation. Which sounds exactly like the conditions under which North Koreans work in Polish shipyards. The laborer says that he has worked over 60 hours per week for the past 2 and half years without vacation or contact with his family. We head back to meet with Cecylia Kowalska
to confront her with this information. Nevertheless, Cecylia Kowalska honored the North Korean cabinets in the name of her company: Armex. Gifts presented to President Kim-Il Sung and Leader Kim Jung-Il by foreign heads of state, politicians, and public figures. This sword was presented by the president and vice president of the Armex Company Limited of Poland, on January 12th- The president of Armex is Cecylia Kowalska. The gift expresses the wish that Leader Kim Jung-Il would bring about not only peace on Korea but peace in independent's cause in the world. We tried to speak to the North Korean embassy about their country's close work with Armex but it didn't answer our repeated requests for an interview. So we headed directly to the embassy but as soon as we get out of the car employees come out to send us away they make it clear that they are keeping an eye on us. We want to know from the Polish Ministry of Labor how many North Koreans are currently working in Poland. But they don't answer us either. They apparently issued 1,972 work Visas to North Koreans over the last 5 years. but don't know how many of them are currently working in Poland. The fact that the European Commission officially knows nothing about this is pretty bad. But what's worse is that the EU is regularly helping to finance the forced labor through development plans. Over 70 million euros in EU funds have flowed into Crist and Nauta alone in recent years. Right into the shipyards, in which forced laborers from North Korea are exploited. But Poland has been behaving this way for over a decade. North Korean laborers have been toiling away here for years completely isolated from the outside world and their families And the meager amounts that they are paid; end up in the pockets of the regime. As long as this continues, it's not only North Korea who will profit from the forced labor but Europe's economy as well.
Najlepsze jest to ze kobita z jakiegos tam urzedu nie wie ilu Polnocych Koreanczykow (nie wiem jak to gramotnie napisac...) pracuje w Polsce bo "niestety informacje mamy z systemu informatycznego" w ktorym jak wiadomo (?) latwo pomylic Koree Polnocna z Poludniowa...
No i oczywiscie wymowka firmy Atal na koniec... w ktorej tlumacza sie ze prowadzenie etycznej dzialanosci znaczy przestrzeganie praw, implikujac ze jesli wykorzystanie niewolniczej sily robotniczej z Polnocnej Korei nie jest nielegalne, to nie ma problemu :P
Zaszerowałem ten film na swoim profilu FB i przypałętał się social media ninja z profilu firmy ATAL, z gotową wklejką, że "wszystko jest legalnie". Oczywiscie nie odpisuje na zarzuty zawarte w filmie, tylko zasłania się legalnością niemoralnego procederu. Ale widać, że prezesowi i jego synowi wybitnie nie w smak, że smrody wyszły na jaw, skoro łożą na social media damage control. Szkoda tylko, że żadna agencja PR nie pokona w zasięgach i wpływach Vice.
Ciezka sprawa z "lepsza" Korea. Mam nadzieje ze ten memowy kraj jak najszybciej sie rozpadnie.
Korea Płn jest na tyle biedna i potrzebuje twardej waluty, że właśnie i takich metod się czepia. Ktoś w wątku na worldnews opisywał:
Podobne więc było w Chinach gdzie Korea próbowała rozkręcać sieć restauracji Pyongyang, a zyski miały iść do Kimlandu. Typowy reżim. Smutne że Polska się na to godzi.