China responds as report finds North Korean forced labor on Chinese tuna boats.

Chinese fishing vessels have for years relied on North Korean labor, in a possible violation of United Nations sanctions, according to a new report.

Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China and Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights with emailed requests for comment outside normal office hours.

Why It Matters

An estimated 100,000 North Koreans are working in neighboring China—many in seafood processing plants, according to reports. These workers are vulnerable to exploitation by their Chinese employers and the North Korean state, which reportedly withholds up to 90 percent of wages remitted home.

U.N. Security Council sanctions prohibit employing North Koreans or engaging in financial transactions that benefit the government, over concerns that the payments are fueling the Kim Jong Un regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

What To Know

At least a dozen Chinese-flagged tuna longliners operating in the Indian Ocean had North Korean laborers aboard, according to a 23-page report by the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) that was released Tuesday.

The findings are based on interviews with Indonesian and Filipino fishermen who claimed to have worked alongside North Koreans or knew of their presence on other vessels. EJF investigators sought to cross-verify these accounts using video and photo evidence from interviews and historical ship-tracking data.

The captains of these vessels were likely aware that employing North Koreans violated international law, the report noted, as the workers were never allowed to disembark and were instead transferred between ships at sea to avoid detection.

Interviewees indicated five of the North Koreans had been laboring for this fleet for five to seven years. EJF was told that the North Korean workers had not been allowed to return home during this time because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then the country closed its borders.

China and Taiwan account for 60 percent of the world’s distant-water fishing fleet, with Japan, South Korea and Spain making up another 30 percent.

These vessels spend months at sea, far from government oversight, and have been accused of widespread illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.

Reports have also documented serious human rights abuses, including overwork, unpaid wages, forced labor and violence.

What People Are Saying

One crewmember interviewed by EJF: “Give or take seven years, or eight years [the North Koreans had worked on the vessel]. They were not given permission to go home by their government.”

Another crewmember: “Well, from what the vessel boss said, if they [the North Koreans] get off the vessel, the Captain would be fined […] The Koreans could not ever be seen by the police. The local police. But, then again, I could not know for certain why that was.”

Lin Jian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters Monday: […] “China all along carries out offshore fishing in accordance with laws and regulations. China’s relevant cooperation with the DPRK is conducted within the framework of international law.”

What Happens Next

EJF urged countries and regional fisheries management organizations to step up transparency measures, such as requiring ships to continuously transmit their positions via automatic identification systems.

Maritime nations should also ensure access for ship crew members and be prepared to “identify and intervene” in cases of forced labor, the organization said.