Coronavirus pandemic: how North Korean factories could benefit as the rest of the world goes into lockdown
- North Korea says it has no cases of Covid-19, and while the rest of the world is in lockdown, its factories could take up some of the slack
- Chinese companies, such as clothing manufacturers, have been using cheap North Korean labour on both sides of their border for years
It should be one of the most heavily affected countries on earth, sitting in the red zone between South Korea and China. Yet North Korea claims not to have a single case of the coronavirus.
While that is unlikely to be true – US intelligence is “fairly certain” there are at least a few, because of a notable lack of military activity in Pyongyang – North Korean factories could start picking up some of the slack for a virus-ridden China and South Korea.
Ethically dubious as this sounds, we might all have already worn clothes made in North Korea. The border city of Dandong in China is a hub for Chinese clothing manufacturers who illegally send textiles across the Yalu River to clandestine factories in Sinuiju city, North Korea, and then sew “Made in China” labels into finished goods on their return.
Manufacturers can save up to 75 per cent of the production cost this way. That’s because factories in North Korea are state-owned, and wages – when they are being paid – are less than a quarter of what they are in China.
North Korean workers are also said to be more productive, making 30 per cent more clothes each day than a Chinese worker. This is due to long hours, harsh working conditions and indentured labour.
“In North Korea, factory workers can’t just go to the toilet whenever they feel like, otherwise they think it slows down the whole assembly line,” said a Korean-Chinese businessman working both sides of the border. “They aren’t like Chinese factory workers who just work for the money. North Koreans have a different attitude: they believe they are working for their country, for their leader.”