A UN special rapporteur on North Korea has called for an investigation into the many North Koreans working abroad in what he characterized as "slave-like" conditions.<br />A Seoul-based human rights group says the workers are forced to make foreign currency for the cash-strapped Kim Jong-un regime.<br />Here's Shin Se-min.<br /><br />The United Nations' human rights investigator for North Korea said he will look into allegations that 20-thousand North Koreans are working in slave-like conditions in countries like China, Russia and the Middle East.<br />Marzuki Darusman, the UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea, told Reuters the workers are "bonded laborers or slave laborers" who receive poor compensation for working long hours.<br />NK Watch, a Seoul-based human rights group, says roughly a hundred thousand workers are sent overseas to 40 countries and make some 3-billion U.S. dollars in foreign currency every year for the Kim Jong-un regime.<br />The human rights group also called for an investigation into host countries' involvement in the program.<br /><br />This isn't the first time the practice has surfaced.<br />Activists say North Korea has been using its manpower to make money for the Kim regime since the 1980s,... with some of the money is being spent on luxury goods. <br />But the practice has been accelerating under the current leadership,... as the number of North Korean workers abroad is said to have increased by 35-thousand since 2012, based on figures from the New York Times and NK Watch.<br />Activists say the practice may have increased because of tighter international sanctions on the regime that have prompted it to seek new sources of revenue.<br />Shin Se-min, Arirang News.
