North Korean Workers' Unrest

Date: January 11, 2024 • Location: Helong, China

Several thousand North Korean migrant workers in Helong engaged in civil unrest, including a factory occupation and the taking of managers as hostages, due to unpaid wages.

North Korean migrant workers are a significant source of finances for the North Korean state. Often working in hard labour fields such as construction, logging, textile production, or mining, migrant workers' conditions have been frequently described by human rights activists as a modern-day form of slavery. North Korean labourers are frequently found in China, Russia, and the Gulf states, although they are also located in other countries.