North Koreans working in Poland and in Denmark

Curious how folks here on PF feel about such an incongruous situation. Unlike South Koreans, North Koreans speak no European languages (including English), as they're not allowed to study them. How then do they communicate with the Poles and the Danes? Hiring an interpreter can run into some serious money, almost as much as a lawyer. I know, I am an interpreter.

The North Koreans are clearly working entirely Black Market and are angering Washington. What are Poland, Denmark, and Germany doing about this matter?

They aren't 'black market' - North Koreans never are. They're hired out by the government there in a form of modern slavery. This has been heavily criticised and as I remember, state companies in Poland had to change the contract. Private companies are not under the same pressure, and of course capitalists will always choose the cheapest and most exploitative option.

No need to hire interpreters; plenty of Koreans speak English as a second language as do many Poles.

Poland and North Korea have always had good official relations, though there is little or no popular affection in Poland for the Kim regime.

Indeed, communism is commonly hated in Poland, some brainwashed voters of deplorable far left like Razem or Zlew love North Korea's way.

I doubt that, Wulky.

The PiS regime are nevertheless happy to do business with DPRK.

Actually North Koreans worked in PL well before PiS came to power. The EU talks tough about NK yet they have no problems with NK running hostels and restaurants in Germany.

Many of the NK's who came to Poland, like the Vietnamese, came during the PRL years. Most of the NK's that are in PL are located in the tri cities where they are employed as ship builders and some in agriculture. These are legal activities. There is no ban on hiring North Korean workers and PO never did anything about the NK's working in Gdansk during their term in power either... so your assumption that PiS are actively doing business with DPRK is false as it is mostly private individuals/sp zoo's that are contracting NK's for the cheap labor. This was done before PO's term, during PO's term, and is still occurring under PiS.

Quite frankly, most Poles simply don't care about NK and don't care about the few thousand workers in the country....

Also, I'm pretty sure one of the high up Kims was up until very recently the ambassador to Poland and currently lives in Warsaw in one of the fancy neighborhoods.


This article says otherwise

upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/06/07/Poland-banned-North-Korea-workers-after-provocations-Warsaw-says/1311465318997

But according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw, not one work visa was issued to a North Korean national after the tests. In 2015, 156 work visas and 482 work permits were issued.

The Polish government also stated that it is looking into the case of a local shipbuilding company that was employing North Korean workers at its sites.

PiS is the party that stopped it, what PO scum had started.

Yup.. Just one of many bad things that PiS had to clean up after PO. Funny how the EU loving and foreign media in Poland don't talk about how NK thrived under their regime, could come in and work freely, etc. It's to be expected though especially as they downplayed PO's stuffing of the courts, collusion, kowtowing to the EU's dictates to the dismay of the majority of Poles, etc.

You do realise that as of 3 days ago they're still there, despite the awful PiS regime. Evidently not...

Birds of a feather...

So the foreign ministry was either mistaken or flat out lying. The foreign ministry has SFA to do with the issuance of work permits, those are handled by provincial governments in Poland. The NY Times found the foreign ministry's claim suspicious and so:


nytimes.com/2017/12/31/world/europe/north-korea-poland-workers.html


They haven't stopped it: there are still North Korean slaves in Poland and visas were still being issued right up to the point that the UN security council passed a resolution banning the use of North Korean labour anywhere

Actually it works alongside immigration as it is a security agency. Also, the MFA deals with issues of foreign nationals and governments, Poles abroad, works with embassies, other security and government institutions, etc. MFA are the ones who would undoubtedly have dealings with NK.


They prevented the issuing of any new visas - far more than PO ever did

No it doesn't. I do understand that it's hard for those who live on the other side of the Atlantic to know much, if anything about Poland, but take it from somebody who has lived here for more than two decades, the MFA has SFA to do with foreign nationals on a day-to-day or case-by-case basis.


So the PIS appointed MFA were lying when they claimed that no new visas were being issued. No surprise given the attitude the 17% regime have to the truth.

And no, PIS did not prevent new visas from being issued, as the NY Times article makes crystal clear.

17%? Youre confusing po support for pis which accordong to even wyborcza has well over 40% - double to triple of pos depending on which month, poll, etc youre going by. All of the sources nonetheless agree that pis is far ahead of po.

And yes mfa deals with foreign nationals visas what you need to enter poland customs info etc. All the info is on their website. They deal with threats to poland as well.

Indeed, that is the percentage of eligible Poles who actually voted for PIS. Interestingly it's also pretty much the percentage of eligible Poles who actually joined the communist party. Those facts might also lead one to conclude that about the same percentage of Poles support the use of slave labour in Poland as it appears that one in six of the people here are either morons or deeply unpleasant.


The MFA has got SFA to do with work permits. That simple fact is confirmed by anybody who knows anything about life in Poland and by the NY Times article you seem so interested in not discussing.

Actually I read the article. Nothing new.... and not a big deal... quite hypocritical imo as NK has hostels and restaurants in Germany and businesses other EU countries. NK restaurants are very popular in China and SE Asia also.

Your 17% figure is extremely misleading as the turnout for both presidential and parliament election was right around 50%. Obviously you don't count blank ballots or count the 50% who didn't participate towards one party/person or other. I could say that the 50% who didn't participate would all vote for Kukiz, or half would vote for PiS, or 1/3 for PO - in any case it's all speculation. They didn't vote so you can only go off the 50% that did. Well, that 50% allowed for PiS to basically take every seat PO lost.

More people in Hungary voted in the referendum regarding migrant quotas. Yet the EU says its invalid. The bogus thing is the migrant referendum had a larger turnout than the referendum for EU entry. Funny how the EU and lefties will respect one referendum, but not another.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_parliamentary_election,_2015
50.92% turnout - with PiS and KUKIZ15 clear majority - PO receives 15% less share of the votes at 3.7 mil than last election and loses 69 seats in sejm and 34 in senate. PiS gains 8% more share than last election and gains 78 seats in sejm and 30 in senate. Add Kukiz 15 to PiS and you're at over 7 million votes to po's 3.6 mil. Nowoczesna's numbers weren't too far off from korwin.... freakin Korwin lol

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_presidential_election,_2015
48.96% (first round)
55.34% (second round)

@jon, I hate to contradict you, but I read recently in "The Journal of International Affairs" published by Princeton, I believe, that of all the nations in the developed world, North Korea has practically the lowest functional ability in English.

Can you imagine a conversation between a simple North Korean day laborer and their Polish supervisor??
Although somehow it seems to work, this is nonetheless the stuff of high comedy!

They are however able to provide English speakers for key roles like this. The British Council operate in Pyongyang (or did until very recently), as do other training institutions. There are degree courses ar DPRK universities offered in English.

And the waitresses at the state-operated North Korean restaurants in Dubai and elsewhere all speak English nicely.


Why would a day labourer speak to the client? They speak to their Korean supervisor, who speaks to their Korean manager who deals with the client.

Makes sense, jon. Spot on, sir!

Thinking about it, they aren't really day labourers - although the concept of day labour is a vicious failing of capitalism, thous man and women from DPRK are something far worse - they are outsourced slaves - something that shouldn't be happening anywhere.

With Trump in power, they will undoubtedly only become more numerous!

"Actually North Koreans worked in PL well before PiS came to power. The EU talks tough about NK yet they have no problems with NK running hostels and restaurants in Germany."

What about brothels in Germany. Who runs them?

Are there still North Koreans working in Poland?

@jon357
Depending on a humans intelligence and goals, some people prefer a very easy, strict framed life as to know what to expect and having it stable.

Having a 8 hour job that pays for his and partners needs beats having to plough the field, not knowing if crops will fail or not.

One isn't therefore limited to locally produced tools and necessities and having only farmed food/trade goods to barter with but uses earned coin (which was the driving force to become a factory worker in the first place. Possibility to earn money, which wasn't the standard but, rather the exception)

Having a currency paying job is a luxuary...

It Europe is s not a luxury. It is a right.

One reason that we consider slavery to be abhorrent.

@jon357
It is a luxury for the past 100 years...

I wouldn't call owning one's own farmstead and plowing fields slavery...

Why would you say that Lyzko ?

No, for a worker to be paid a decent wage in a freely convertible currency, it is a right.


In Europe as a whole, such people are a small minority. And yes, they have a right to receive a decent amount of money for whatever their labour produces.

Blatant lie, most workers in the world have only right to wages that are bare minimum.

Reducing amount of workers that could gain experience by working for free for a short period of time and contracting workers permanently or long enough to lose it in the long run by being stuck with low wages.

It ain't a right to work, it's something one needs to fight for, educate and improve.

Otherwise it would been handed out to everyone without need for any skills and nothing being done. Lunacy!

We aren't talking about the third world. We are talking about North Korean slave labourers in Poland.

Workers have a right to receive the full fruits of their labour, and even where that is compromised, they have the right to a living wage and the right to withdraw their labour as they see fit.

Not the slavery that you seem to be advocating.


How can something you already own be "handed out" to you?

@jon357
If a worker received full fruits for his labour he would be the owner, not the labourer.

If somebody is tasked with doing a job for somebody else, he is performing a service. What's so hard to grasp about that

There are all kinds of workers in Poland now doing manual work, often in illegal conditions - Indians, Bangladeshis, Central Asians, Chinese and even Mexicans. A lot in warehouses, construction and agriculture