Total population | |
---|---|
34,217 [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Russian Far East | |
Languages | |
Korean, Russian | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Koryo-saram |
North Koreans in Russia consist mainly of three groups: international students, guest workers, and defectors and refugees. A 2006 study by Kyung Hee University estimated their total population at roughly 10,000. [2]
Aside from North Korean citizens living in Russia, there has also historically been significant migration from the northern provinces of Korea, especially Hamgyong, to the Russian Far East; this population of migrants became known as the Koryo-saram . [3] 65% of the Sakhalin Koreans also took up North Korean citizenship in the 1950s and 1960s in order to avoid statelessness; roughly one thousand even repatriated to North Korea, though their ancestral homes were in the southern half of the Korean peninsula. [2] [4] In addition, various senior members of the Workers' Party of Korea, including Kim Il Sung himself, lived in Russia prior to Korean independence and the establishment of North Korea. [5] [6]
During the post-Korean War reconstruction period of North Korea from 1953 to 1962, many North Korean students enrolled in universities and colleges in countries of the Soviet bloc, including Russia, and others came as industrial trainees. [7]
In the late 1940s, roughly 9,000 North Korean migrant workers were recruited by the Soviet government to work in state-owned fisheries on Sakhalin. [8] Another 25,000 workers also came to work in fisheries during the 1950s. The second wave began in 1966 or 1967 under a secret agreement between Leonid Brezhnev and Kim Il Sung in Vladivostok, which involved North Koreans working as lumberjacks. [9] [10] Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 were present in any given year. The first two waves consisted mostly of criminals or political prisoners. [9]
However, the most recent influx of North Korean workers, which began under the government of Vladimir Putin, is composed of volunteers seeking to escape unemployment and poverty at home. Most are from Pyongyang; recruitment companies prefer workers from urban areas, as they are believed to adapt better to life in other countries. By 2006, more than 10,000 North Koreans entered Russia on work visas annually, largely headed for the Russian Far East. They are closely monitored by North Korean security forces to prevent defections; many report being paid in scrip rather than legal currency. [9] In 2009, the North Korean government was estimated to earn roughly US$7 million each year in foreign exchange through their workers in Russia. [11] In 2010, reports came out from Nakhodka indicating that North Korean workers and traders there had been evacuated back to their home country due to rising military tensions with South Korea. [12] In 2011, Kim Jong Il made a visit to Russia in which he reportedly negotiated for even more North Korean workers to be sent to Russia. [13] Up to 70% of the $40 to $100 per month wages earned by the workers are reported to be taken away as "loyalty payments". [14]
The decline of the economy of North Korea has also resulted in an increasing number of North Korean refugees in Russia, also in the eastern regions. Many of these refugees are runaways from the North Korean logging camps. Both South Korean diplomatic missions and local ethnic Koreans are reluctant to provide them with any assistance. As early as 1994, the South Korean prime minister was quoted as stating "It is legally not tidy for us to grant North Koreans asylum". It is believed that North Korea ordered the assassination of South Korean consul Choi Duk-gun in 1996 as well as two private citizens in 1995, in response to their contact with the refugees. In 1999, there were estimated to be only between 100 and 500 North Korean refugees in the area. [15] However, their numbers grew rapidly. In 2003, Sergey Darkin, the Governor of Primorsky Krai, suggested allowing up to 150,000 North Korean refugees in China to settle in Russia, but his plan never came to fruition. [16] In November 2007, Russian law enforcement abducted a North Korean asylum seeker in front of a Federal Migration Service office in Moscow, which turned him over to agents of the North Korean special services. The refugee later escaped from a facility in Vladivostok, and intervention by the NGO Civic Assistance and UNHCR prevented his deportation. [17]
Kim Jong Il was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea. He led North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Afterwards, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary of the WPK.
Kim Pyong Il is the younger paternal half-brother of the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, and the only surviving son of former leader and president of North Korea Kim Il Sung. He worked as a diplomat and lived overseas between 1979 and 2019, serving in various diplomatic positions such as ambassador of North Korea to Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information at its source. A typical example of this was the death of Kim Jong Il, news of which was not divulged until two days after it occurred. Kim Jong Un, who replaced his father as the leader, has largely followed in the footsteps of both his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father. However, new technologies are being made more freely available in the country. State-run media outlets are setting up websites, while mobile phone ownership in the country has escalated rapidly. "There is no country which monopolizes and controls successfully the internet and information as North Korea does," said Kang Shin-sam, an expert on North Korean technology and co-head of the International Solidarity for Freedom of Information in North Korea, a nonprofit based in South Korea. North Korea has about four million mobile-phone subscribers circa 2022—roughly one-sixth of the population and four times the number in 2012, according to an estimate by Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
In the North Korean government, the Cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other, but all branches are under the exclusive political leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Kim Jong Un is a North Korean politician who has been supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim Jong Il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui. He is a grandson of Kim Il Sung, who was the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994.
Kim Ok is a former North Korean government employee who served as Kim Jong Il's personal secretary from the 1980s until his death. After the death of Ko Yong-hui in August 2004, she regularly met with foreign officials as de facto first lady, and was rumored to be the supreme leader's fourth wife.
The Kippumjo, sometimes spelled Kippeumjo, is a collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls reportedly maintained by the leader of North Korea for the purpose of providing entertainment, including that of a sexual nature, for high-ranking Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials and their families, as well as, occasionally, distinguished guests.
Japanese people in Russia form a small part of the worldwide community of Nikkeijin, consisting mainly of Japanese expatriates and their descendants born in Russia. They count various notable political figures among their number.
Russians in Korea do not form a very large population, but they have a history going back to the Korean Empire. The community of Russian subjects/citizens in Korea has historically included not just ethnic Russians, but members of minority groups of Russia as well, such as Tatars, Poles, and, more recently, return migrants from among the Koryo-saram and Sakhalin Koreans.
Choe Deok-geun, also spelled Choi Duck-keun or Choi Duk-gun, was a South Korean consular official for the Russian Far East who was believed to have been assassinated by poison in October 1996.
The Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok pipeline is a pipeline for natural gas in Russia, transporting Sakhalin's gas to the most populated and industrialized regions of the Russian Far East. It is also projected to become a part of an international export route, carrying Russian gas to East Asian countries, such as the People's Republic of China, South Korea and Japan. The pipeline is owned and operated by Gazprom. It was opened on 8 September 2011.
The Respected Comrade Supreme Commander Is Our Destiny is a 2008 North Korean film, described by the North Korean State news agency KCNA as a "documentary film".
Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho was a North Korean military officer who was Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army from 2009 to 2012, as well as a member of the Presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea from September 2010 to July 2012.
Choe Ryong-hae is a North Korean politician and military officer who currently serves as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly and First Vice President of the State Affairs Commission, holding both positions since April 2019. Due to holding the first office, he was considered the head of state of North Korea before the country's constitution was amended to transfer this position to the President of the State Affairs Commission, Kim Jong Un. He is also a member of the Presidium of the Politburo and Vice Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). He also served as Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un's military second-in-command, currently being third top-ranking official in North Korea after Kim Jong Un and premier Kim Tok-hun.
Ri Ul-sol was a North Korean politician and military official. He played an important role in the administrations of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, achieving the rank of Marshal of the Korean People's Army. He was responsible for the safety of top North Korean leaders and their families as Commander of the Guard.
Jong Myong-do is a North Korean politician and fleet admiral. He served as commander of the Korean People's Navy as well as member of the Supreme People's Assembly from the 10th convocation.
Pyon In-son is North Korean politician and military officer, colonel general and from March 2012 commander of the 4th Corps of the Korean People's Army.