February 26, 2024 — Seafood processed by Chinese companies using labor from North Korea has made its way into international seafood supply chains, according to a new Outlaw Ocean report published in The New Yorker magazine.
The latest story builds on previous work by the Outlaw Ocean Project which discovered evidence of Uyghur labor in the supply chains of prominent seafood companies, retailers, and distributors. The new report details evidence gathered over several months which suggests Chinese seafood processing companies providing seafood for companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe are using North Korean labor to cut costs – violating United Nations sanctions and laws in the respective countries.
Outlaw Ocean said its team of researchers partnered with investigators and advocates in South Korea and China to obtain evidence of North Korean workers being forced to work long hours for little pay in long-term contracts. Interviews with North Koreans, kept anonymous out of fear of persecution, detail work conditions wherein the laborers – mainly North Korean women – were often held inside fenced-in worker compounds and compelled to work via coercion and threats against family members.