North Korean workers' unrest in Russia 'behind South Korean's arrest'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during Kim's visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in January 13, 2024. [NEWS1]

The arrest of a South Korean national on suspicion of espionage by Russian authorities suggests Moscow is trying to put pressure on individuals and groups that help North Korean workers in Russia.

On Monday, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported that South Korean national Baek Won-soon was arrested and detained on charges of espionage, citing that “state secrets” were passed on by Baek to foreign intelligence authorities. At the time of his arrest, Baek, a missionary, was working in Vladivostok helping North Korean defectors, according to multiple South Korean media reports.

As this is the first time that a South Korean national has been arrested on suspicion of espionage in Russia, attention is being drawn to the context of the arrest.

Analysis suggests that Baek’s arrest is related to the phenomenon of growing negative public sentiment among North Korean workers dispatched overseas earning foreign currency. With the arrest of a missionary helping North Korean defectors in Russia, Putin could be trying to alleviate Kim Jong-un’s worries regarding the unrest among North Korean workers in the country.

Currently, most North Korean workers scattered across China and Russia are unable to return to their hometowns and have stayed overseas for long periods due to borders being blocked during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is pointed out this is an environment in which dissatisfaction is bound to accumulate, as workers have not been replaced for several years and most of the money owned is paid as remittance back to North Korea.

Last January, an allegation was raised by Koh Young-hwan, a North Korean defector with a diplomatic background currently serving as a special adviser to the Unification Minister handling inter-Korean affairs, that about 2,000 North Korean workers in Jilin Province in China protested for four days about unpaid wages. The workers occupied a sewing and seafood processing factory during the time.

There was another report that added that managerial staff were allegedly taken hostage by the protesting workers, assaulted and eventually died.

Dozens of North Korean workers in Dandong, China, also refused to go to work last month, demanding that they be sent back home, according to Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

The National Intelligence Service responded to these reports in China's Jilin Province and Dandong by saying that “we are monitoring the related incidents that are occurring due to poor living conditions of North Korean workers dispatched overseas,” confirming that such cases had indeed occurred.

A building in Vladivostok where Baek Won-soon, a South Korean national arrested on charges of espionage, worked at, is seen on March 12, 2024. [YONHAP]

Similarly, the situation of North Korean workers in Russia is very poor, even considering that workers can move in and out of their workplaces relatively freely as compared to workers in China.

“North Korean workers are scattered throughout Russia, including in Khasan, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Moscow,” a missionary who was expelled from Russia in 2013 while helping North Korean defectors told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily. “Most of these workers are forced to send over 75 percent of the money they earn to North Korean authorities, while at the same time trying to send some of their earnings to their families, so they live in extreme difficulty.”

Experts point out that control over North Korean workers has been tightened as North Korea and Russia build stronger ties through munition trade regarding the war in Ukraine.

“Currently, we know that about 3,000 North Korean workers are residing in Russia,” said Cho. “After the Ukraine war, the so-called ‘quiet diplomacy’ activities of rescuing North Korean defectors as Russia turned a blind eye became impossible, and the intensity of pressure by Moscow on North Korea-related activists increased.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s concerns have likely deepened regarding the overseas workers as they have served as a key source of foreign currency for the regime and are increasingly attempting to defect. As North Korean workers lived abroad for a long period of time, they were exposed to foreign cultures. Some workers realized the contradictions of the regime’s system and tried to defect.

Overseas workers additionally pose a risk for the regime as upon their return, they become channels of outside information to the North Korean general public. The Korea Institute for National Unification observed in a report published last month that “the mass strike by North Korean overseas workers is the birth of a North Korean version of the labor movement.”

Despite these challenges, North Korea, facing a chronic economic crisis, cannot afford to give up on dispatching workers overseas, as other means of earning foreign currency are blocked due to sanctions. North Korea is making specific plans to dispatch a large number of workers to develop Russia’s Far East region. In the long term, they hope to help Russia rebuild after the war in Ukraine ends.

The arrest of a South Korean missionary who has been active in helping North Korean workers in Russia is thus seen as related to the larger dilemma concerning overseas workers for the Kim Jong-un regime. It is possible that judicial authorities in countries friendly with North Korea — Russia and China — took action when signs of deviation from North Korean overseas workers were detected.

The fact that Russia arrested Baek on charges of espionage, which can result in up to 20 years in prison, can be seen as a warning message in itself.

“This is the first time that a South Korean missionary has been taken to Moscow by Russian authorities, so everyone is being cautious and the general atmosphere is very subdued,” a local source in Vladivostok told the JoongAng Ilbo.

BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO, PARK HYUN-JU, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]