A report says Chinese fishing vessels used North Korean crews in breach of UN bans

SEOUL, South Korea — A fleet of Chinese fishing vessels used North Korean crews between 2019 and 2024 in violation of U.N. bans, and many people were apparently subjected to abuses including being trapped at sea for years, a report said Monday.

The Environmental Justice Foundation, a London-based group specializing in environmental and human rights issues, said it identified the presence of North Koreans on 12 Chinese tuna long-liners operating in the southwest Indian Ocean. The report was mostly based on interviews with 19 Indonesians and Filipinos who worked alongside them.

“The testimony received from Indonesian and Filipino crew members suggests that concerted efforts were made to hide the presence of North Koreans on these vessels, and that those North Koreans on board were forced to work for as many as 10 years at sea — in some instances without ever stepping foot on land,” the report said.

“This would constitute forced labor of a magnitude that surpasses much of that witnessed in a global fishing industry already replete with abuse,” it added.

The group said the North Koreans were passed from vessel to vessel to prevent them from returning to land. It cited unidentified Asian crew members as saying their North Korean shipmates were not allowed to use mobile phones or leave vessels during port visits.

The group said it wasn’t able to estimate the number of North Koreans aboard the Chinese vessels because of the transfers.

The use of North Korean crew would be a breach of 2017 U.N. Security Council resolutions that required member states not to issue work permits to North Koreans and repatriate all remaining North Korean workers from their territories by the end of 2019.

The sanctions were adopted after North Korea conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests in violation of earlier council resolutions.

The report said the use of North Korean crew also appears to have bypassed legal frameworks in the U.S. and the European Union designed to prevent goods produced by North Koreans from entering their supply chains.

Along with Russia, China is suspected of not fully enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and has vetoed U.S.-led efforts to toughen U.N. sanctions on North Korea despite its banned weapons tests.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment immediately.

The EJF said it’s the first time North Korean labor has been publicly documented on a distant-water fishing vessel.

Before the 2019 U.N. deadline, tens of thousands of North Koreans were reported to be working abroad, mostly at factories and restaurants in China and logging camps and construction sites in Russia, to bring in much-needed foreign currency.

North Korean workers abroad were in general under the constant surveillance of their country’s security agents, toiled more than 12 hours a day and took home a fraction of their salaries, with the rest going to their government, according to defectors and experts.

Despite the U.N. ban, South Korean officials and experts believe a large number of North Korean workers remain engaged in economic activities around the world and transmit money that is used in the North’s nuclear weapons programs.