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The work of Scot Marciel's ambbadador with local authorities has closed a North Korean restaurant in Yangon, one of the many restaurants in Southeast Asia where young waitresses are singing, dance, serve moderately priced dishes and offer Kim Jong Un pins in the shop. More than 80 percent of the salaries of the servers are taken to support their country, where citizens are starving.
The closure of the Yangon restaurant and the expulsion of its employees is a success in an ongoing US campaign to end work overseas. Hundreds of thousands of North Korean workers and smother the $ 500 million a year that they provide to the regime.
"Each embbady was asked to identify and counteract North Korean sources of income," said a former NSC official who worked on the initiative that covers workers in Europe, the Middle East and the Middle East. East, Africa and Asia. Efforts to crack down on Pyongyang's mobile labor force in restaurants, construction sites and military and medical units overseas are part of the maximum pressure campaign that allowed Kim Jong Un discuss denuclearization with President Donald Trump. Mountain peak.
But North Korean work abroad, especially in Russia, China and Southeast Asia, continues at a steady pace. And there is growing concern that some countries may be imposing sanctions, while others are using the summit and warm relations between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to ease the restrictions imposed. in Pyongyang.
In Chinese river towns bordering North Korea, workers return to restaurants, some working and others seeking to reopen their doors, say local businessmen.
"We are already receiving information that China's border controls have been relaxed," Gregory Scarlatoiu, the executive director of the North Korea Human Rights Committee, told CNN. "I think that China, Russia and others have benefited from the warming of relations between the United States and the DPRK to resume or continue their economic exchanges with the DPRK with impunity."
Pressure on the ruling family to put an end to its nuclear and missile development, Pyongyang discovered that citizens of overseas expedition to earn money created a stream of income reliable.
& nbsp; Nice & # 39; but & # 39; very strange & # 39;
The State Department compared the migrants to a slave labor force, which brings in $ 500 million a year in Pyongyang, according to the UN. Workers are closely monitored by the regime's "guardians" and forced to pay the government's remittances and loyalty fees at home, almost always more than half of their check.
Restaurant waitresses are occasionally allowed to shop with badistants and are often from high-clbad families, according to Rosa Park, program director of the North Korea Human Rights Committee.
. the restaurants are run by a network of North Korean expats, probably the same as those involved in other illicit income generating activities and are part of this set of tools used by the scheme to increase currencies. "Priscilla Moriuchi at the security firm Recorded Future.
" These tools include smuggling drugs, alcohol and precious stones, counterfeiting US dollars and cigarettes and exploiting the 39, diplomatic immunity, "said Moriuchi, a former senior official of the National Security Agency in East Asia, intelligence operations or illegal enterprises, particularly in Laos and Thailand, according to sources US has said that the opportunities are "intended to promote [North Korea] but are certainly more involved in corruption, espionage," and described them as "nice," but "very bizarre." 19659002] The restaurant in Mongolia at Ulaanbaatar, For example, it is decorated like a birch forest, where waiters look at diners with hawk intensity before turning themselves into flashy costumes for executing Dance routines North Korean beer and food, such as the traditional bibimbap and beef soup, are the subject of good criticism.
Money from foreign workers and businesses like these restaurants is not the "cornerstone" of the scheme. Institute of America, but that's not "an insignificant amount by North Korean standards."
As part of its maximum-pressure campaign, the United States imposed new harsh sanctions on the UN in December 2017, specifically targeting North Korean workers, requiring most of them to return home in 2019.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans have worked in Russia and China, two of the few places where their airline Air Koryo still travels. A large number of workers work in logging and construction in Russian cities such as Vladivostok, while most North Korean restaurants are in Chinese cities, especially at the border.
In the bustling town of Dandong, a local businessman told CNN that North Korean tourism and business had been severely affected after Beijing ordered the closure of all North Korean companies in December. January.
"I expect that the things improve "identified only by his last name. "North Korean restaurant workers are starting to arrive," he said. "Some small restaurants have opened while large ones like Koryo, near the river, seem to be preparing for reopening."
He notes that the number of trucks pbading between his city, which is right in front of Sinuiu, North Korea, is about 30% compared to the busiest period before the sanctions. "We are all waiting for things to improve," he said.
China, North Korea's largest trading partner, is crucial to any attempt at Pyongyang's economic compression and experts say it is clear that Beijing is complying with it. But President Xi Jinping could see strategic advantages in getting closer to North Korea, and look away from sanctions, especially when President Donald Trump continues to impose trade tariffs on China.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embbady told CNN that the government "has fully, accurately, faithfully and rigorously applied" the UN's resolutions on North Korea.
Russian officials, according to local press, promised to expel North Korean workers. A foreign official familiar with the issue said that Russia alone had about 20,000 people working in conditions of slavery.
The Kremlin declined to comment, but Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambbadador to North Korea, told Russian news agencies the authorities began to deport North Korean migrant workers in accordance with UN sanctions of December.
The United States has been more successful in reducing North Korea's overseas revenues.
Former CIA official Bruce Klingner told Congress in March 2017 that "at least 30 North Korean restaurants have closed their doors" due to sanctions, the anti-hedonism rules of China and the South Korean government. ] German officials closed an inn in Berlin to channel money to Pyongyang in May 2017. Mongolia has publicly declared the expulsion of some North Korean contract workers in December. "Detailed plans have been developed to identify and eliminate North Korea's sources of revenue at all levels," said Abigail Grace, Asia-Pacific Security Researcher. Center for a new American security and former staff member of the National Security Council for Trump.
But there are gaping faults. Sources in the intelligence community, familiar with restaurants in Asia, told CNN that many remain open, although customers rarely visit them. The number of workers abroad has decreased, but many countries have industries that depend on North Korean labor.
Pyongyang has workers scattered across the Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, but most said they will stop issuing new visas.
The Outside World
At least one North Korean restaurant in Dubai. Previous press reports have linked North Korean workers to the dangerous construction of the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar, and North Korean workers have been linked to palace building projects in the Gulf, although governments vehemently denied it. Korean workers can be found in Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Burma, Nepal and Vietnam. In Africa, particularly in Algeria and Ethiopia, North Koreans often work in construction or provide military or medical services. Some reports suggest that North Korean fishermen work in Uruguay.
Some observers from Korea argue that there could be unintended humanitarian consequences to the US push to repatriate workers and close North Korean businesses. "Inevitably, the sanctions will impose restrictions on the amount and type of items or money that could be sent to North Korea, making humanitarian groups working under restrictive conditions to deal with even more of constraints, "said Arnold Fang. Korean researcher at Amnesty International.
Tokola of the Korea Economic Institute of America, said others believe that North Korean restaurants and other legitimate businesses should be allowed to stay open. They offer workers a rare glimpse of the outside world, said Tokola, and more money than what they could do at home.
