It was belatedly reported that about 120 North Koreans staying in China were forced to leave the country. It is said that North Korea-China relations have become frozen as China unilaterally expelled North Korean workers.
According to multiple Chinese sources on North Korea on the 17th, about 120 North Korean residents who worked at a clothing company in Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, were forced to leave the country on the 30th of last month.
It is known that about 100 of them are female workers engaged in clothing processing, and about 10 are executives who manage them.
Sources say that the date they received the forced departure order from China was the 29th of last month, and they all returned to North Korea in one day.
The incident started when a female worker left the workplace.
In fact, a North Korean female worker, Ms. A, left her workplace in the middle of last month and wandered around downtown Dandong. She was said to have had difficulty communicating with people around her and had cognitive problems.
However, it is not exactly known whether Mr. A had problems from the time he was dispatched to China, or whether the problems arose while living a closed life in China for a long period of time.
Mr. A is said to have wandered around downtown Dandong for about a day after leaving the factory and dormitory. He walked to the Yalu River railway bridge, about 15km away from the factory, and the next day he went into a North Korean restaurant called ‘Songdowon’ in downtown Dandong.
When Mr. A entered the restaurant and spoke gibberish, North Korean restaurant workers reported Mr. A, a North Korean resident, to the National Security Agency, and the National Security Agency was said to be investigating his whereabouts.
However, it became a problem that the clothing company that Mr. A belonged to reported him missing to the Chinese public security. Chinese public security had identified all of Mr. A’s movements through CCTV records installed in downtown Dandong.
Afterwards, Chinese public security arrested Mr. A and investigated him, and a week later, not only Mr. A but also all workers and management executives at the factory he worked for were forced to leave the country.
A North Korean source said, “All executives at the factory were expelled due to negligence in managing workers. The reason is that North Koreans wandering around downtown China can have a negative impact on public security.”
It is said that the North Korean consulate in China was also greatly embarrassed by this incident. Afterwards, the North Korean consulate reportedly summoned executives in charge of workers and held an emergency general meeting on the 5th.
At this event, consulate officials said, “Relations with China are not in a very good state. He is said to have said, “Since I am in China, I must follow Chinese law first.”
Another North Korea-related source said, “Everyone was surprised that China was expelling all North Korean workers all at once,” adding, “This incident seems to have confirmed that the Sino-DPRK (North Korea-China) relationship is in a difficult situation.” “The words come out,” he said.
Source: www.dailynk.com
