South Korea, as is well known, dispatched a ton of workers to the Gulf during the 1970s on various construction projects, and according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), North Korea may now be attempting to do the same. KOTRA said Saturday that 3,000 North Korean workers — mostly of the unskilled, low-wage variety — were working on construction sites in Kuwait. Major North Korean construction companies have apparently been sending the workers over the last couple of years to earn foreign exchange, with the North Korean embassy in Kuwait apparently involved as well. KOTRA added that Kuwait had previously denied North Korea permission to build an embassy in their kingdom, but with the number of North Koreans sent to the country rising, it finally allowed construction of an embassy in July 2003.
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4 Comments
I remember at the time of the beginning of this war on Iraq hearing about Morth Korean labourers that were stranded in Kuwait because their government could not afford to evacuate them, while other nationalities were going home. I tried to find out more about them at the time but there was nothing. It’s good to know they haven’t been completely forgotten by the world. 3,000 is a lot, though! Wonder if they have their own Juche study sessions.
hmmmm not nice from a country that we just saved about a decade ago..
Alvin,
What’s so not nice about what Kuwait is doing? It gives 3000 NK laborers a chance to run away, or at the very worst, get a chance to see how the rest of the world operates.
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