Kim Jong Un Has an Illegal Source of Cash: Tuna

It's no secret that North Korea sends workers abroad to earn cash for the regime in violation of UN sanctions, reports the New York Times. But a new report from a human rights and environmental group uncovers one such operation in unusual detail within the tuna fishing industry. The Environmental Justice Foundation out of London found that a dozen Chinese vessels made use of what amounts to the forced labor of North Korean fishermen between 2019 and 2024, per the Guardian. Details:

• Some of the fishermen were forced to remain at sea for up to a decade, usually getting transferred to another ship as the one they'd been working on prepared to dock at a port. If their ship did dock, the North Koreans were typically not allowed to leave it or use mobile phones, per the AP.

• The men also were not allowed to keep the money they earned, which went to the regime of Kim Jong Un.
• The EJF interviewed Indonesian and Filipino crew members who described working with the North Koreans (often resorting to body language to communicate) and obtained video of crews speaking Korean.
• "My [North Korean] friend told me was that in seven years working on fishing vessels, they and their family were never given the money," an Indonesian fisherman tells the Guardian. "The government takes the money and once they return the government builds them a house as compensation. They were not happy about the arrangement but they don't have any option."
• "I docked in Somalia, Mauritius, Australia, Madagascar, and Somalia again, and the North Koreans were always transferred (before docking)," another tells the Times. "One of them told me that he has a wife whom he never contacted during the seven years he's been gone."
• "This would constitute forced labor of a magnitude that surpasses much of that witnessed in a global fishing industry already replete with abuse," the report asserts. Foundation CEO Steve Trent says it should make people think twice about eating tuna. It appears that most of the tuna caught in this fashion wound up in Asian markets.

(More North Korea stories.)