Russia Arrests 45 North Korean Laborers Escaping from Work

It was reported October 26 that Russian immigration authorities arrested 45 North Korean laborers working in the Maritime Provinces of Siberia for escaping from their workplace and entering the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East.

Immigration authorities of the Kamchatkan Ministry of Home Affairs announced on the day that “We arrested 45 North Koreans who trespassed onto our territory, and we will send them back to Siberia.”

These people were identified as laborers working for the Russian Pacific Fleet located in Siberia and were reported to have been absent without leave. There are presently 150 North Korean laborers working on the facilities of the Pacific fleet.

The arrested North Koreans are testifying, saying, “We arrived at Kamchatka by plane in search of a better job,” but since there are no particular jobs in Kamchatka, the channel and motive for their escape are being questioned.

The circumstances of how the North Koreans, who were under strict control, were able to board a plane as a group are still unknown. The straight-line distance from Siberia to Kamchatka is 2,300km.

As a result, questions are being raised over whether the North Koreans were planning to stow away to a third nation from Kamchatka by boat.

Choi Jae-geun, the South Korean consulate general in Vladivostok, said, “We are investigating the truth and keeping all possibilities open.” According to the consulate general, there are approximately 4,000 North Korean laborers in the Russian Far East, including about 1,200 in the Maritime Province of Siberia and about 300 in Sakhalin. Most are construction or forestry laborers.

There was a case in the early 1990s in which some North Korean laborers at the Khabarovsk lumbering site escaped from their workplace, but hardly any cases of escape have been reported recently. Currently, no North Korean laborers have been officially dispatched to Kamchatka.

Ki-Hyun Kim kimkihy@donga.com