There's not much going on in the Pyongyang restaurant, at least not this evening. It's located on the outskirts of Moscow, somewhat hidden, but festively lit outside and with a friendly young North Korean woman at the reception inside.
Upstairs, in the main dining room, there is little activity. The menu is meat-heavy, communication with the wait staff is poor and limited to the menu card. Anyone who comes here usually knows how far they can go in conversation. Better not to ask critical questions about the Great Leader Kim Jong-Un or even about the earning potential of the staff. Film recordings are particularly undesirable.
"I think the Russian authorities would not be happy about it and the North Korean authorities would be very unhappy," believes Russian Korea expert Andrei Lankow, who teaches at South Korea's Kunmin University in Seoul. "The staff has their orders. The foreigner could be a vicious reactionary and dream of provocation. If they are too talkative, they could be sent back." And continue to punish there.
Only a fraction of the money remains
The resulting loss of earnings alone is a punishment. Although they only keep a small fraction of their wages in Russia, that is still more than the average equivalent of 140 euros that they get back home. The young women could hardly hope that any misconduct would not be noticed: every working group in Russia has a "supervisor" who was chosen in the capital Pyongyang.
Meanwhile the waitress came with the food and the North Korean beer. Four young female musicians have started playing a North Korean version of K-pop. The video motifs on the large LED screen behind it change to the sound of the electric guitars: the flowers of the mountains, the lakes and forests.
An idyll, that's how it's supposed to seem - and yet one that obviously not many Russians are interested in. In addition to a North Korean family celebrating a child's birthday, only a small birthday party of young Russians made it here. The now five restaurants of this type in Moscow are probably the only place where you can meet North Koreans.
The number of temporary workers is increasing rapidly
Lankow estimates there are now 50,000 people spread across the country. "The numbers are rising very quickly. Flights to Russian cities are full of North Koreans. Given the workforce and the political situation, North Korea could send up to 150,000 workers to Russia."
Is the Kremlin violating a resolution that Russia itself voted for in the UN Security Council? In 2017, he discovered that North Korea was also co-financing its nuclear and missile program in Russia with the income from temporary workers. The UN demanded at the time that all workers must be repatriated by 2019.
Student visas, among other things, remained permitted. Russia is now exhibiting them. But are there now 50,000 North Koreans studying in Russia? “Last year there were around 150. This year there may be a few more who are actually studying,” says Lankow.
Work and live in strict isolation
Where and how they work is unknown even to Russian society. A video of a happy company party appears on the Internet, that's it. The only reports on the working conditions of a group that has to work in controlled and isolated manner in company-owned accommodation are from experts and human rights organizations, including London-based Global Rights Compliance (GRC), which presented a new report on the subject this week.
"The average wage for North Koreans in Russia is about 7,000 euros a year," says Yeji Kim, a researcher and consultant at GRC. Most of it is diverted from Kim Jong-Un's regime. Accommodation and food would also be deducted.
Especially in the first year, the debts still have to be repaid, for the flight and paying the Russian employment agent. Of the more than 20 people interviewed who were covered up by GRC intermediaries, some said they only had around ten euros left over - a month. This means they sometimes have less than they would at home. They embarked on their journey voluntarily in the hope of bringing home their savings. They are not told what actually awaits them - otherwise they would not have started the trip in the first place, North Koreans told GRC.
Relatives as leverage
Escape is practically impossible, and not just because the passports are with the guards. “North Korea is also relying on the families of the affected people who remain behind in the country,” says Yeji Kim. These could “serve as a means of pressure”.
One of many means of pressure in a system that the UN commission of inquiry into North Korea has described as a form of state-organized forced labor. In particular, it contradicts the conventions against forced labor of the ILO, the UN specialized labor agency.
Of course, the beneficiaries are not interested in the fate of the individuals: Russia's war-torn economy and the state need North Korea because it can supply manpower and soldiers, as well as military equipment compatible with Russia's, such as artillery shells.
North Korea, in turn, needs worker exports because it is chronically cash-strapped and, says Yeji Kim, the regime can obtain "military intelligence information, satellite technology and Mercedes-Benz cars for Kim Jong-Un" through cooperation with Russia.
The Russian labor brokers, in turn, had developed mafia-like structures and often cashed in twice: from the North Korean state and from the workers.
"North Koreans are a capitalist dream"
The workers are usually only handed over to companies in groups, often of 50 people. The mostly Russian intermediaries advertise with slogans such as "Minimum wage four euros per hour" and "Twelve-hour working day - six days a week". Lankow says of himself that he is cynical, not politically correct, and summarizes the "benefit" of a North Korean for Russian companies as follows:
In the "Pyongyang" restaurant, the bottle of "Tumangang" beer has just been emptied when the playback band made up of three young North Korean women presents their musical highlight: a rocking paean to the heroic people's army, which rolls from victory to victory on the video wall in the PR clip. Victories for a country in which a person doesn't count for much - not at the front, not on the assembly line and probably not at the guitar either.
