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The salaries of North Korean forced labourers are believed to directly benefit the Kim Jong-un regime |
The UN Security Council has repeatedly raised concerns that money earned by North Koreans who are sent abroad to work is used to fund the country’s nuclear programme. According to the Vice report, the North Korean labourers’ salaries go “through a network of companies directly into the pocket of the dictatorial Workers' Party”.
Reaction to the news that the North Korean labourers worked on a Danish warship was swift amongst Denmark’s politicians.
Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen told Information that it would be “completely scandalous” if the warship was indeed built by forced labourers but he declined to say more until investigating the situation further.
Denmark’s former foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, said the case was “crazy” and “absurd”.
“On its own it is completely problematic to work with a shipyard that uses forced labourers. And then on top of that comes an absurd security policy situation in which we may have indirectly supported North Korea,” Lidegaard, the defence spokesman for the Social Liberals, told Information.
DR2's documentary on the use of North Korean labourers will air on Tuesday evening.