Experts estimate that as many as 50,000 North Koreans are working outside North Korea in many different industry sectors around the world. In most cases the workers are not working of their own free will and a large percentage of their pay is presumably confiscated by the North Korean government. Media reports have cited sub-contracting by Chinese apparel factories to factories in North Korea, and the use of North Korean workers in Chinese factories.
This issue brief examines the question: how should FLA affiliates respond to the risk of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korean) labor in their supply chains?