---
title: "Listen — The untold plight of North Korean workers (China Part 3) Episode 8"
description: "Spread across Earth’s oceans, the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is the single largest armada in human history. This three-part series is an unprecedented investigation into their secretive fishing practices. The fleet is so gargantuan that even the Chinese government can’t account for all its vessels. We do know it has hauled in more than $35-billion worth of catch per year and sold it across the globe – and yet, almost nothing was known about its practices. That is, until The Outlaw Ocean team started asking questions."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "THE OUTLAW OCEAN PROJECT"
author: "The Outlaw Ocean Project"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/the-outlaw-ocean-project/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-07-30-listen-untold-plight-of-north-korean-workers-china-pt-3-ep-8/"
published: "2025-07-30T19:57:03"
updated: "2025-07-30T20:23:26"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 240
---

# Listen — The untold plight of North Korean workers (China Part 3) Episode 8

> Spread across Earth’s oceans, the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is the single largest armada in human history. This three-part series is an unprecedented investigation into their secretive fishing practices. The fleet is so gargantuan that even the Chinese government can’t account for all its vessels. We do know it has hauled in more than $35-billion worth of catch per year and sold it across the globe – and yet, almost nothing was known about its practices. That is, until The Outlaw Ocean team started asking questions.

By The Outlaw Ocean Project · Published 30 July 2025, 21:57 SAST · Updated 30 July 2025, 22:23 SAST

## Key points
- In a gripping exposé, we peel back the layers of China's clandestine complicity in North Korea's forced labour saga, revealing how the seafood on your dinner plate may be tainted by tales of abuse and exploitation, all while the West remains blissfully unaware of the dark connections lurking beneath the surface.
- North Korea's forced labour persists in China, defying UN sanctions, with over 100,000 workers estimated to be employed there.
- Local informants risk severe consequences to expose the brutal realities faced by North Korean workers, including violence and sexual assault.
- Testimonies link North Korean labour to major global retailers, revealing a complex web of exploitation in the supply chain.
- Host Ian Urbina highlights the systemic denial of responsibility, connecting various forms of modern slavery from the sea to local grocery stores.

## Content

#### **Episode highlights:**

- North Korean labour is forced labour by definition – nobody has a choice. Officially, China is in line with its UN allies in sanctioning North Korea and its regime-funding labour. But, unofficially, since 2017, China has quietly but consistently violated those sanctions. This is an open secret China has successfully kept hidden from the West. Until now;
- Despite the prohibition against North Korean labour, the US state department estimates that there are more than 100,000 North Korean workers currently in China. We set out to humanise these numbers, compare them with Chinese data, and connect some dots. But first we reckon with the fact that local people helping us with this reporting are risking everything from espionage charges to execution. But even despite the extreme risks, two dozen workers agreed to talk to us, and be quoted by an interpreter. Their rare testimonies tell of rampant sexual assault, violence, constant monitoring and zero access to the outside world; and
- We manage to connect the dots from these testimonies to seafood being shipped to American importers that supply major retailers like Walmart, McDonald’s and Cisco – the largest food distributor on the planet. Host Ian Urbina reflects on the invisible dots of plausible deniability, which are built into the whole system. These are the dots that connect Indonesian slave labour on a ship, to Uyghur labour in a factory, to a grocery store down the block from your house.

[Spotify audio](https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/6aAjeOVVSkfiyi7fAGNEJz?utm_source=generator)

[YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk)