Russia cracks down on illegal N.K. workers, poised to deport them

Countries that are redefining their relations with North Korea after the U.N. Security Council’s adoption of resolution on sanctions against North Korea are speeding up their moves. The world is witnessing countries block the North from using means to earn foreign currency, or switch their stances to change the North’s diplomatic practices that they previously allowed.

The Russian federal immigration bureau announced last Friday that it caught 14 North Koreans at a construction site and is planning to deport them to the North. They had been illegally working at the construction site of Samus village in the far eastern state of Tomsk. Samus Village is located near the Siberian chemical plant that is engaged in enriching of uranium and plutonium, and foreigners should win special permit to be able to enter the area.

Russia's immigration bureau announced that they caught North Korean workers who have no admission permits at the site of a multi-unit home construction project on February 10 and issued administrative measure. They are believed to be North Korean workers who are devoted to earning foreign currency.

Attention is focusing on Russia, which has started cracking down on North Korean workers after expressing objection to U.N. sanctions against the North to the last minute. European countries also started to recognize problems with foreign currency earnings by dispatching the North through dispatch of its workers. “About 2,000 North Korean workers are working at mines in Poland," said a diplomatic source living in Seoul. We are seriously agonizing over how to deal with them after the imposition of U.N. sanctions.”

An ambassador from a European country who doubles as ambassador to North Korea told a Dong-A Ilbo, reporter, “Since political situation on the Korean Peninsula is changing rapidly in recent months, it would be necessary to visit Pyongyang and see the situation in person, but I am refraining from visiting the North, because it could send wrong signals to the North that has committed a string of provocations.” The ambassador is anxious about a high-level official's visit to Pyongyang being misinterpreted as "acceptance of provocations." There are 21 ambassadors in Seoul who also double as their countries’ envoys to North Korea.

Chances are high that the Egyptian government will designate North Korean Ambassador to Egypt Park Chun Il, whom the U.S. singled out on last Wednesday as a figure subject to its independent sanctions, as "persona non grata," and deport him. Even based on the suspicion that a diplomat might have been involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction, the country can deprive him of diplomatic privileges. Myanmar, which is in close ties with North Korea, designated North Korean ambassador to Myanmar Kim Sok Chol as "persona non grata" after the U.S. put Kim on its sanctions list concerning weapons of mass destruction in November last year.

조숭호기자 shcho@donga.com