| Summary/Abstract |
The export of North Korean labor to Russia began in 1946 and continued, almost uninterrupted, until recently. The arrangements behind this labor migration project underwent dramatic revision from time to time, so we have to speak about three different periods: recruitment of North Koreans for work in fisheries in the 1940s and 1950s, dispatch of heavily controlled logging teams in the 1960s-1990s, and work of North Korean building crews, mainly on an autonomous basis, since the late 1990s. These periods reflect the way relations between the two states have been developing, and the change of their political concerns and interests. However, the underlying rationale has not changed much over the decades: the Soviet/Russian state needed cheap and docile labor, while the DPRK needed an additional source of hard currency and North Koreans were enthusiastic about getting lucrative job opportunities. On balance, both sides have been able to get what they hoped to get, and this has ensured the project’s long life.
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