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"North Korean Laborers in Russia Form Refugee Camps"

Posted January. 04, 2005 22:15,   

한국어

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported yesterday that North Korean laborers dispatched to Russia turned down a return to their homeland and formed quasi refugee camps, hoping to go to a third country. The news medium, which covers news in socialist countries, quoted Pastor Douglas Shin, the leader of North Korean defector support group Exodus 21, as having said, “North Korean laborers working in construction sites or farms in the Maritime Provinces of Siberia rejected a return home after their contracts terminated or had escaped from their workplaces and lived in a camp in some places.”

“They hoped to go to South Korea because camp life in Russia is freer and more comfortable than that in the North, but cannot guarantee a future,” said the RFA. “Some camps formed self guard corps or hired Russian gunned guards, preparing against arrests by the North Korean authorities.”