wrists from china and south korea most of the young women who work here aren't students from pyongyang. they live and sleep above the restaurant and in many cases and not allowed to leave the premises for years. every evening at the same time they change their outfits and get ready for the big show. was. the leak. from. their a $113.00 north korean restaurants like this worldwide 3 of them in cambodia they're believed to make several $1000000.00 a year but the waitresses don't get paid

a cent the big bucks western hard currency flow directly into the regime's secret coffers. this is just one example of north korea's systematic exploitation of its own population. north korean workers are deployed around the world even in the european union such as here in poland we found north korean work brigades on a building site they were promised good wages and decent working conditions only to be treated like slaves. in the evening after a 12 hour shift the workers the bussed back to their hostels. it

was. then monitored around the clock by north korean agents. one of them however decided to talk to us. when i was so no problem coming here on your own. you know on sundays we can go out alone. and they're going to just what would happen if you got caught one term and i was you know played accuse me of this and that and i'd be interrogated by north korean state security here in poland. and if they were not satisfied they'd send me back to pyongyang for further interrogation there goes your way and i might even get put in prison and you know come on you're good you don't get to join you sing so you have a job here. i came here to make money. but no matter how hard i work

i can't make money you couldn't i'm already working conditions are miserable little more you go on that we have no freedom we have to spend our lives crammed together in groups so you're probably aware that they keep almost all of our wages we only get a fraction that you know i work is you. choose you know i'm in my thirty's and my wife and daughter are at home at the kitchen my are next to nothing that's not on but i have to do this for them and i have no choice and here i didn't include a book. modern day slavery as north korea sends well trained to a cause to poland to toil away in shipyards and on construction sites the work has . families are effectively held hostage in north korea if

a worker flees their relatives back home will often face severe punishment the workers are paid just 90 year old. the rest goes to the regime as it cashes in for kim largely unnoticed by the international community north korea has sent laborers all over the world believed to number up 215-0000 in all about 40000 of them are in russia and up to 100000 in china north koreans also work in kuwait malaysia cambodia mongolia amman. the united arab emirates and in a number of african countries the un has become aware of this income for pyongyang and is determined to drain the source's. experts estimate that the regime makes up to $1000000000.00 a year this way. now and where ever money is earned it ends up

at office 39. dollars it conducts money transactions with absolute authority to watch or. defect to say the office is directly controlled by kim jong un and manages the leadership secret accounts what's called the palace economy. but where exactly in pyongyang is office 39 located and just how many millions flow into its coffers. when we asked the north korean official he and his interpreter feign ignorance. to believe i don't understand the question but perhaps you know more. have you ever heard of floor 39. 39 floors are we talking about high rises.

office 39 is one of the best kept secrets of the came regime only north koreans who've escaped are able to talk about it openly. so at a secret location we meet a man who used to work for the office he was based in china his task smuggling foreign currency. then he escaped his position was so important that the north korean regime has threatened to kill him. afraid of being identified he had plastic surgery to alter his face and even then he's only willing to be filmed from behind the corner to.

north korea ostensibly has a planned economy. this means that the state takes care of supplying the population with food and other goods. but in north korea this system has been largely abandoned as regards the who supply of food and goods for daily use has as such collapse. as a result the majority of the north korean population has to be self-sufficient. and resort to the black market. to understand office 39 and the capitalist structures in place in north korea it's important to understand its history. in 1991 the world's biggest communist country the soviet union was dissolved and north korea lost one of its most important trading partners. while many formerly communist states now switched to a marketing. anime the kims continued to further isolate themselves. in 1994

the year kim jong is succeeded his late father a devastating famine descended on the country during the great famine in the mid nineties when the north korean starved to death do public duty distribution system collapsed witnesses describe seeing mountains of dead bodies in the streets anywhere between $1.00 to $3000000.00 north koreans. so what happens is the north koreans know knew that if there was a just cause they could no longer trust a lot of the state. and it was the rural population in particular who had to be self-sufficient black market started to emerge known as john madang today there are an unknown number of these markets throughout the country 400 of them are even officially licensed providing tax income for the regime. most of the buying selling and bartering here involves food and goods from china all manner of currencies are

accepted especially u.s. dollars and chinese yuan. to china and north korea share a border that is more than a 1000 kilometers long but over 80 percent of that border is not even secured with barbed wire people in the border region are subject to little control by the state and they enjoy substantial trade with china this trade is the basis for the black market in north korea. the biggest beneficiaries from the informal economy are government officials in pyongyang because of their loyalty although mainly out of financial self-interest the regime permits them to trade and over the years they've become wealthy they sell luxury goods smuggle role materials and invest. in real estate they're called door to

masters of money and enjoy the luxury and freedom afforded to them by the regime but that loyalty comes at a price. many don't see you hold senior government positions including at office 39. like this man who's been living in hiding in seoul since he fled the north. while growing up in the ninety's he witnessed how north korea developed increasingly capitalist structures before he escaped he was responsible for exports likely the offices most profitable business fearing reprisals from the regime he likewise does not wish to be recognized. in. his home you have my position and

a rank within the organization was management employee. but when they knew. i was in charge of foreign trade or. whether departments that did trade with europe welcome back sure a lot of them in fact mudge. hamburg germany until a few years ago the north korean state insurance company k n i c had a branch in an innocuous looking apartment block in the city. from here 6 north korean officials made deals with major european insurers. or home. office 39 has a department for foreign insurance policies this department conducts insurance fraud you know. don't for example they used to reinsure russian

m 18 helicopters that were nearing the end of their operational lives. they already sneaked out on him in concrete terms this department signed contracts with large european insurance firms there's a chevy initially they would pay the insurance premiums of say $5000.00 a month. at eventually the helicopters were blown up or set on fire to collect the insurance some. parish. and that amounted to maybe 2000000 dollars and even month alone you know. it was. just one case among many in 2015 the european union added the k n i see to it sanctions list accusing the company of co financing pyongyang's nuclear weapons program via office that 9 experts estimate that wrecked helicopters

and similar tricks helped the kim regime break in several $100000000.00. north korea uses its global network of embassies to ferry money back to pyongyang government officials enjoying diplomatic immunity transport the money in cash in their flight baggage a simple but efficient way of ensuring the funds keep home flowing. through the embassies as a defense and symbol to its often mainly ceremonial. the 2 things of this financial is also illegal namely. north korean diplomats are basically class carriers came. into finished a business where they may be drug lords and maybe weapons smugglers that they carry definitive passwords so they come to us and. providing military supply

training much of it was being done through north korea's embassies particularly in africa and the middle east all the countries in the middle east current syrian arab republic as the greatest levels of prohibited cooperation with north korean military and. the father of the current syrian dictator had been on friendly terms with the north korean leader kim il song since the 1960 s. . supplied syria with military personnel as well as weapons and ammunition in its war against israel. an important source of income which exists to this day. using tactics resembling those of 18th century pirates office 39 operates cargo

ships under false flags and fake names according to the un this is enabled north korea to send large quantities of weapons and military equipment to syria. between 201220178 says at least 40 shipments of prohibited cargo from north korea passed through the suez canal but then the u.n. managed to have one of the deliveries intercepted. so we found something called go on its way to syria these are super resistant tiles involves which could be used in chemical weapons development but also missile fuel is highly corrosive such tal's could be used for ballistic missile programs as well the bill of lading clearly gave as an address in syria to stop bush from company for serious scientific studies research some to the s.s.

all see which is responsible for serious ballistic missile and chemical weapons development program. the russians still insist the chemical weapons produced in the s.s. labs have been used by syrian dictator bashar al assad against his own people for years. one 3rd of all buildings in syria have been destroyed the regime in damascus has been planning for the time off to the civil war ends and types to receive billions of dollars from international danas for the country's reconstruction. the armies of work has required as a come from north korea as formally agreed by the 2 countries at a meeting in june 29th seen here to pyongyang is looking forward to a lucrative business. the money to buy off a $39.00 it goes straight into the coffers of the leadership. it is used on the one

hand to provide for next 3 items it is used to pay for the demur see these beds cars that somehow found their way into the earth korea defies the sanctions but it also is also used and this is probably more important to deliver the best actors you can you can trade. as early estimate avi's came in joe ill started training the most talented children in terms of method medical bill. if he's a programmer abilities to be called cyber hackers they're also good money or ransomware like prizefighters for example is considered to come from the north koreans it is the biggest cyber attack the world has ever seen hundreds of thousands of computers around the world in about $150.00 countries rendered useless now the u.s. government is publicly placing the blame for that cyber assault uniquely dubbed want to cry squarely on kim jong un's army of hackers british intelligence officials and microsoft had previously concluded the groups associated with the

north korean regime were responsible for the want to cry hack. in seoul i t specialists have north korean hackers squarely in the sights simon choi works as a consultant to south korean intelligence agencies. to the washington we've been following the activities of north korean hackers for 10 years now in the past they've been primarily attacking the south korean ministry of defense and other government agencies but since around 2015 it's become clear that their interest has shifted to international banks. north korea has limited access to the internet with only 1000 ip addresses available to the country many are used by north korean computer specialists to attack other countries experts say that between 601300 hakas are at work for the regime an estimated

$2000000000.00 may have been diverted by young highly trained north korean hakas to fund the country's nuclear weapons program. north korea is changing and impoverished communist state is now a country with a highly flexible shadow economy. and as with commercial companies all that matters are american dollars cash for kim the workers here and now slaving away not for the revolution but for the wealth of their leader and his cronies as the gap between rich and poor whitens. while the population in pyongyang enjoy constant growth in prosperity the u.n. says that 40 percent of the rural population still suffer from malnutrition in order to control its people the regime employs oldskool also a tarion royal north korea's underground economy on the other hand is 21st century

capitalist dandong china. north korea's gateway to the world and a symbol of how futile the un's efforts have been to dry up kim sources of cash. 'd the sino korean friendship bridge across the yalu river has connected the 2 nations since 1943 every day trucks queue up in front of the customs checkpoint it brings together smugglers traders and also the agents and entrepreneurs of office 39 all of them hoping to make a quick deal here. china is by far north korea's most important trading partner according to economics experts it accounts for 90 percent of north korea's export trade.

thousands of north korean women are believed to work for textile manufacturers in the dandong region. posing as businessmen and equipped with hidden cameras we film inside one such factory chinese textile companies hire north koreans because their way. ages are lower than those of the domestic workforce the seamstresses work day and night and often sleep on the company premises many are effectively locked up there for years far away from their families. will meet together with a team of labor lawyers trade experts and data specialists remco broker has been investigating whether european brown's work with chinese companies that directly or in directly employing north koreans. is different things

are things we are actually hoping to stumble as was the use of north korean workers in chinese factories. really to our surprise is yes we do have north korean workers working on the slave like this is inside the more than that time these factories outsource to north korean factories in north korea. to prove the existence of the significance. of north korean slave labor in the supply chain of some of the world's leading cloth and companies. break his team took an especially close look at one chinese textile company with the french name best easton when the firm's own website states that it relies on low labor cost and abundant human resources the list of customers reads like a who's who of international fashion brands the whole dest website features this

men's jackets described as korean imported the buttons bet the words money jeans using trade databases break his team analyzed best business dealings between 20132019 the database is u.s. customs information showing which goods to send back and forth between firms in different. treece so what happens is in a sense the material to make sure isn't close to north korea. they are the same thing in the same. and then you have those close shift to the netherlands or to germany or to america. with interest or between 2013 and december 26th in bomb dest center around $10000000.00 worth of fabrics and more materials to north korea during the same period the company received finished garments worth almost 25 $1000000.00 from north korea. customs classify

textiles by so-called harmonized system codes a lady sweater for example will have a different h.s. coat than a pair of men's jeans. we take a look at h.s. code 62001 it stands for men's anoraks and coats including the armani jacket on the website. between 2013 and december 26th jane von dest imported products with this code worth $12000000.00 from north korea the same code is also found with deliveries from phone dest to europe and the u.s. among the customers and armani. armani jackets that look exactly like the one on the phone dest website can also be bought in europe this one costs 219 year old it's impossible to prove beyond doubt but garments like this one

a made in north korea but at the same time can it be ruled out. we asked the company's implicated to comment armani's response we confirm the dest is one of us the players and us such is regularly subject to checks and inspections the result of these checks being that. no finished product some money in north korea like or last supply is it is also required to declare which subcontractors it uses and where these are concerned it is also the case that none are in north korea. we also right to vote best the company offered no explanation as to why and on what scale it trades with north korea. one thing can be said for some big name fashion brands have the goods manufactured by a chinese company that does business with north korea a country where workers have no rights where human life counts for little or

nothing and breakers investigation shows that this is far from an isolated case chinese firms use factories in north korea to produce goods with hundreds of millions of dollars. for years and years we've heard testimony from north korean escapees who were in concentration camps that they have been forced to produce textile for the export markets for famous western brands and i think for the 1st time western able to corroborate as an xterm a source of not true a testimony. in this same database i found the. department of bureaucratic departments that is responsible for managing the production of textiles for one of the concentration camps aside from that. it means that we know that only by close produced by forced laborers levies

a slave labor we may even buy clothes in the netherlands and germany all 3 are in america that was made in concentration camps by people who will never see the light of day again these are the kinds of constants you don't leave into your guts that is just too horrific. to to put in words and they're complicit. hundreds of sounds of men and women secretly ensure the survival of the pyongyang regime their future is a sacrificed for the luxury as life styles of the powers that be and also for western consumerism and convenience kim jong onis perhaps not so much an unhinged dictator as a coolly calculating businessman who runs his country like a company. and office $39.00 plenty of business with everything and everyone including us.

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movies friend of mine who lives in the lifetimes of thousands of residents. in 2015 you followed suit repeat a loser daily lives with his target shooting someone please know the bridge is in danger and even demolish a desperate situation. 90 minutes on t w. they were forced into an aimless mess. their bodies your tools. the history of the slave trade is of africa's history. describes how the greed for

power and profit plummeted and entire continent into chaos and violence. this is the journey back into the history of slavery. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 10th on d w. this is d w news and these are out top stories a new foreign ministers have agreed to new sanctions against russia over the jailing of opposition leader alex cena valmy sanctions will be imposed on 4 senior russian officials the e.u. says it's a signal that debate and protest must be allowed in russia the kremlin has called the move it disappointing and unlawful. the e.u. has also agreed to drop sanction.