2024 Helong Civil Unrest
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According to South Korean sources, between 11 and 14 January 2024, several thousand North Korean migrant workers in the Chinese city of
Helong Helong (; Chosŏn'gŭl: 화룡; Hangul: 허룽) is a county-level city in southeastern Jilin province, Northeast China. It is under the administration of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. In January 2024, several thousand North Korean mi ...
went on
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
over unpaid wages. The
civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to maintain public order or tranquility. Causes Any number of things may cause civil di ...
ended after North Korean authorities agreed to distribute several months' worth of pay to the workers. While many of the sources that reported on the event cited a senior analyst at the
Korea Institute for National Unification The Korea Institute for National Unification is a think tank funded by the South Korean government focusing on issues related to Korean reunification. It is one of the 25 institutes under the auspices of the National Research Council for Econom ...
(KINU) and a
North Korean defector People defect from North Korea for political, material, and personal reasons. Defectors flee to various countries, mainly South Korea. In South Korea, they are referred to by several terms, including "northern refugees" and "new settlers". To ...
who claimed to have informants in the region, Chinese authorities have denied that the incidents occurred and several news sources, including ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' and
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
, have stated that they have been unable to independently verify the stories. In China, several thousand migrant workers from North Korea are employed in factories and food processing plants. This work program is in violation of United Nations sanctions, and workers in the program are often subject to abuse, including the withholding of payment. These issues were further exacerbated by the
COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...
, during which time many North Korean workers in China were barred from reentering North Korea. Additionally, workers during the time reported that they had not received some of their payments, with the
North Korean government North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
withholding the money. South Korean sources claim that, on 11 January, workers at a plant in Helong initiated a
factory occupation Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories. They have been used in many strike actions, including: *t ...
, took several managers and plant officials
hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...
, and vowed to not resume work until they had been paid. On 14 January, one of the hostages was killed. That day, North Korean officials brought an end to the dispute by distributing payments to the involved workers. In total, the protests and work stoppages had affected over ten plants in the city and had involved between 2,000 and 3,000 workers. These events were reported on by Cho Han-bum, a senior analyst at KINU, and Ko Young-hwan, a North Korean defector. Following the unrest, North Korean officials repatriated about 100 workers and imprisoned them. Multiple sources highlighted the rarity of such incidents of civil unrest among North Korean citizens, with several academics opining that the events in Helong could spur further unrest in other locations. In mid-February 2024, there were reports of a similar work stoppage in the Chinese border city of Dandong, with North Korean workers demanding to return home.


Background

In
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, many
North Koreans The demographics of North Korea are determined through national censuses and international estimates. The Central Bureau of Statistics of North Korea conducted the most recent census in 2008, where the population reached 24 million inhabitants ...
are employed as
migrant workers A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers ...
, in fields including
food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...
,
manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...
, and
construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
. The migrant worker program is overseen by multiple government agencies, including
Room 39 Room 39 (officially Central Committee Bureau 39 of the Workers' Party of Korea, also referred to as Bureau 39, Division 39, or Office 39) is a secretive North Korean party organization that seeks ways to maintain the foreign currency slush fu ...
, and in 2012, a
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
-based
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
estimated that the program generated approximately $2.3 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) for the
government of North Korea A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
. That year, there were roughly 40,000 North Koreans working in China. Chinese companies are incentivized to hire North Koreans because they are often paid about a quarter of what a Chinese worker would be paid and are usually excluded from
social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...
programs, such as
retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
and
parental leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...
. Jobs in the country are often sought out by North Koreans due to higher wages. In 2024 article for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', investigative journalist Ian Urbina reported that contracts for migrant workers in China averaged about $270 per month, with comparable jobs in North Korea paying only around $3 per month. Some workers bribe government officials in order to participate in the migrant work program, sometimes taking out loans from
loan sharks A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of collection, and generally operates outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, aggressive, and extortionate ...
in order to do so. However, migrant workers are often subject to poor working and living conditions. Often, the workers have to sign up for a two- to three-year contract and have their
passports A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...
confiscated when they arrive at their place of work. Additionally, managers often withhold payments until the end of their workers' contracts. According to Urbina, due to fees and managers keeping some of the money for themselves, workers typically take home less than ten percent of what they were promised in their contract. Also, worker deaths often go unreported and sexual exploitation of the female employees is common, with many workers reporting
sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
from managers. According to Remco Breuker, a
Korean studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes South Korea, North Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history, Korean culture, Korea ...
professor at
Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...
, "Hundreds of thousands of North Korean workers have for decades slaved away in China and elsewhere, enriching their leader and his party while facing unconscionable abuse". Following the
2017 North Korean nuclear test North Korea conducted its sixth (and most recent to date) nuclear test on 3 September 2017, stating it had tested a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb). The United States Geological Survey reported an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude not far from N ...
, the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
passed sanctions that prohibited North Korean nationals from working abroad. Despite these sanctions, many North Korean nationals continue to work in China, with a 2022 estimate from Chinese officials claiming that 80,000 North Koreans were working in
Dandong Dandong ( zh, s=丹东 , t=丹東 , p=Dāndōng; lit. "Red East"), formerly known as Andong, is a coastal prefecture-level city in southeastern Liaoning province, in the northeastern region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest ...
, a city on the
China–North Korea border The China–North Korea border is an Border, international border separating China and North Korea, extending from Korea Bay in the west to a China–North Korea–Russia tripoint, tripoint with Russia in the east. The total length of the borde ...
. According to Urbina, the migrant workers are an "
open secret An open secret is information that was originally intended to be confidential but has at some point been disclosed and is known to many people. Open secrets are ''secrets'' in the sense that they are excluded from formal or official discourse, b ...
" in China.


Civil unrest

On 29 January 2024, the South Korean newspaper ''
The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' () is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language, Korean-language daily. It is the oldest active daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. ...
'' published an article quoting Cho Han-bum, a senior analyst at the
Korea Institute for National Unification The Korea Institute for National Unification is a think tank funded by the South Korean government focusing on issues related to Korean reunification. It is one of the 25 institutes under the auspices of the National Research Council for Econom ...
, who said that there had been a series of violent protests between 11 and 15 January conducted by North Korean migrant workers at more than ten textile factories in
Helong Helong (; Chosŏn'gŭl: 화룡; Hangul: 허룽) is a county-level city in southeastern Jilin province, Northeast China. It is under the administration of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. In January 2024, several thousand North Korean mi ...
, a city in the
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in the east of Jilin, Jilin Province, China. Yanbian is bordered to the north by Heilongjiang, Heilongjiang Province, to the west by Jilin's Baishan, Baishan City and Jilin Ci ...
, located in the northeastern Chinese province of
Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...
. Cho's claims were supported by Ko Young-hwan, a former diplomat from North Korea who
defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...
to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
in the 1990s, who said that informants of his in the region had told him that thousands of North Korean workers in clothing factories and
fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...
processing plants in the area had been engaged in protesting. In an interview given with the online newspaper
NK News NK News is an American subscription-based news website that provides stories and analysis about North Korea. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea with reporters in Washington, D.C., and London. Reporting is based on in ...
, Cho stated that the factories were managed by North Korea's
Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
, with the Singaporean newspaper ''
The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' (also known informally by its abbreviation ''ST'') is a Singaporean daily English-language newspaper owned by the SPH Media Trust. Established on 15 July 1845, it is the most-widely circulated newspaper in the country and ...
'' further stating that the factory workers were "dispatched by a
trading company Trading companies are businesses working with different kinds of products which are sold for consumer, business, or government purposes. Trading companies buy a specialized range of products, maintain a stock or a shop, and deliver products to cus ...
operated by the country's military". Multiple sources put the number of workers involved in the protest at about 2,000, with some claiming a figure of up to 3,000. In a February 2024 interview, Ko stated that the incident involved about 2,500 to 3,000 workers.


Causes

According to Ko, his informants told him that the protests stemmed from overdue wage payments. Per Cho, the protests occurred after workers in the city discovered that, for years, their pay had been sent to the
Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is ...
without their consent or knowledge. The American news magazine ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', which described the protests as a "wage
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
", reported workers at roughly 15 garment factories in the region were owed approximately million in backpay for between four and seven years of labor. Reporting from ''The Straits Times'' said that resentment over "lingering pandemic lockdowns" also played a role in the furor. Per the newspaper, some of the migrant workers had been in China for several years, as they were unable to return to North Korea due to border lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to ''
The Japan News The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ''The Asahi Shimbun'', the ''Chunichi Shimbun'', the '' Mainichi Shimbun'' ...
'', following the border closures, the North Korean enterprises withheld all money from the workers for "war preparation funds". The newspaper further stated that the civil unrest had commenced after factory workers in China had heard rumors that workers who had returned to North Korea had not received their payments. In a statement to
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
regarding the unrest, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said, "Various incidents and accidents have been happening due to poor living conditions of North Korean workers dispatched overseas, so we are checking on related movements", offering no further clarification.


Factory occupation and later developments

According to ''The Japan News'', on 11 January, North Korean workers at a food processing plant and clothing factory located near the
Tumen River The Tumen River (, , ; Korean pronunciation: tumaŋaŋ">Help:IPA/Korean">tumaŋaŋ, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River, is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China (left shore), North Korea (right) and Russi ...
in Helong initiated a
factory occupation Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories. They have been used in many strike actions, including: *t ...
, vowing to go on strike until their wages were paid. Workers proceeded to destroy factory equipment, including
kitchen utensil A kitchen utensil is a small hand-held tool used for food preparation. Common kitchen tasks include cutting food items to size, heating food on an open fire or on a stove, baking, grinding, mixing, blending, and measuring; different utensils ar ...
s and
sewing machine Diagram of a modern sewing machine Animation of a modern sewing machine as it stitches A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolutio ...
s, and take several managers and North Korean officials
hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...
, additionally subjecting them to
physical assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result i ...
. Multiple sources stated that a large number of the women involved in the occupation were women in their 20s who had formerly served as soldiers. North Korean authorities at the Chinese
consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...
responded by sending members of the Ministry of State Security and
secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...
officers, though workers barred them from entering the factory. On 14 January, the workers beat to death one of the hostages. Three others were wounded. According to Cho, the protests ended after North Korean officials agreed to distribute several months' worth of salaries to the involved workers.


Aftermath

Following the riots, multiple sources stated that North Korean officials had identified about 200 workers who had taken on leadership roles in the riots and had repatriated about half of them to serve terms in
political prison A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
. Ko stated that North Korean authorities stopped short of arresting more workers who had been involved in the unrest due to the value that the workers brought to the government through their work. Concerning the protests, journalist Ju-min Park wrote for Reuters: Multiple sources reflected on the rarity of similar incidents of civil unrest among North Korean citizens, with Ko saying that the disorder was part of a recent uptick in violence in North Korea. Further discussing this, journalist Wendy Teo of ''the Straits Times'' opined that the unrest could be indicative of a loosening of social control that North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...
's administration was experiencing at the time. He also stated that similar unrest could restart if wage payments were to again cease. ''The Japan News'' also reported that "the impact of the Yanbian incident is likely to spread to other regions" where North Korean migrant workers had been stationed. In mid-February, Cho reported that there had been claims of a similar work stoppage in Dandong, with the North Korean workers there demanding a return to their home country.


Disputed claims

In their coverages of the incidents, both Reuters and ''Newsweek'' reported that they were unable to independently verify Cho's claims, citing the difficulty in getting information regarding North Korean migrant workers in China. According to the news magazine, the earliest reports of unrest among factory workers in the region stemmed from an interview Ko gave earlier in the month with the Japanese newspaper ''
Sankei Shimbun The , name short for , is a daily national newspaper in Japan published by the Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd, ranking amongst the top five most circulated newspapers in Japan. Together with its English-language paper ''Japan Forward'', the ''Sankei ...
''. However, Peter Jung, the head of the Justice for North Korea
rights group A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...
, disputed these claims, telling NK News that he had received confirmation from local workers in the region and
public security Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensu ...
authorities that no violent protests had occurred. Additionally, Reuters reported that Chinese officials had stated that they were "not aware" of any unrest in the area. Discussing the matter, Jae-Pyoung Seo, the director of the Association of North Korean Defectors, stated that it was possible that the protests had occurred as reported by Cho and Ko, citing previous incidents of wage disputes going back several years regarding migrant workers in China, as well as recent discussions on Jilin websites about the "wage arrears" among an unspecified group of migrant workers.


References


Further reading

* {{Cite web , last1=Bremer , first1=Ifang , last2=Park , first2=Lina , date=29 January 2024 , title=Deciphering reports of North Korean workers' strike in Chinese textile factories , url=https://www.nknews.org/2024/01/deciphering-reports-of-north-korean-workers-strike-in-chinese-textile-factories/ , url-access=subscription , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617072002/https://www.nknews.org/2024/01/deciphering-reports-of-north-korean-workers-strike-in-chinese-textile-factories/ , archive-date=17 June 2024 , access-date=19 December 2024 , website=
NK News NK News is an American subscription-based news website that provides stories and analysis about North Korea. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea with reporters in Washington, D.C., and London. Reporting is based on in ...
2024 labor disputes and strikes Economy of Jilin Economy of North Korea Helong History of Yanbian January 2024 in China Migrant workers North Korean diaspora Strikes in Asia