North Koreans have reportedly been subjected to slave-like exploitation aboard Chinese distant-water fishing vessels, according to a report by a U.K.-based environmental group. Some crew members were allegedly forced to work at sea for up to 10 years, while others remained confined to ships for eight years without ever setting foot on land. The findings suggest that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is trafficking his own citizens to generate foreign currency.
The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) released a report on Feb. 22 titled “Trapped at Sea: Exposing North Korean Forced Labor on China’s Indian Ocean Tuna Fleet,” detailing the forced labor conditions of North Korean fishermen.
The report is based on testimonies from 19 Indonesian and Filipino fishermen who worked alongside North Korean crew members aboard Chinese tuna fishing vessels between 2017 and 2023. EJF said, “China is a major destination for North Korean labor, with an estimated 100,000 workers in the country,” adding that “this is the first time North Korean labor has been publicly documented on [Chinese] distant-water fishing vessels.”
Fishermen testified that while the Chinese distant-water fleet regularly docked near Somalia, Mauritius, and Australia, North Korean crew members were never allowed to disembark. Instead, they were transferred between ships at sea, preventing them from ever setting foot on land. This was reportedly done to evade a UN Security Council resolution passed in December 2017, which banned all member states from employing North Korean workers and required the repatriation of those already abroad as part of sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear program. To avoid detection, vessel owners allegedly kept North Korean crew members confined to their ships.
The report noted that after the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel and six North Korean workers were arrested when the vessel docked in Mauritius in December 2022, the practice of confining North Koreans to evade detection became more frequent.
North Korean fishermen were also banned from carrying mobile phones, leaving them unable to contact their families for years. An Indonesian fisherman who worked with six North Koreans from late 2022 to June 2023 testified, “One of them told me he hadn’t been in contact with his wife for seven years.”
The report also included testimony from a crew member suggesting that a North Korean sailor had remained on the vessel for eight years without ever setting foot on land. Despite enduring severe human rights abuses, North Korean crew members reportedly monitored one another and remained immersed in ideological indoctrination. They would watch videos of Kim Jong-un’s speeches and, standing at attention, sing songs while raising the North Korean flag.
Most crew members on Chinese fishing vessels had their passports confiscated and worked with only five to six hours of sleep per day. Among them, North Korean crew were reportedly the most experienced and skilled. Indonesian crew members earned about $330 per month, but North Koreans’ wages were sent directly to the North Korean government. Some vessels were said to allow North Koreans to keep $50 from their monthly pay.
“Illegal fishing and human rights abuses can be found almost without exception on board China’s distant-water vessels,” said Steve Trent, chief executive of EJF. “However, the use of North Korean forced labor for such long periods is a particularly severe example of the egregious misconduct uncovered by EJF.” A UN panel of experts reported last year that despite UN sanctions, more than 100,000 North Koreans were still working in 40 countries.
EJF further revealed that between 2017 and 2023, 177 cases of suspected or confirmed illegal fishing and human rights abuses occurred on 71 Chinese vessels operating in the southwestern Indian Ocean.
