North Korean Loggers

In the days after reading about the North Korea loggers that that recently defected to the South I found myself drawn to one particular aspect of the story.

North Korea sends its people to work in a number of overseas countries to try to secure valuable foreign exchange. In the Amur region, nearly 1,500 North Korean workers are employed at a series of remote logging camps, according to a BBC report earlier this year.

Conditions are grim, with winter temperatures usually some 30 deg Celsius below zero. Apart from two holidays a year, the North Koreans are said to work year-round whatever the weather. The North Korean state takes 35 per cent of the proceeds from the logging, about US$7 million (S$9.8 million) a year, the BBC reported.

Here's where Amur is. I think of logging as a pretty grim occupation anyway -- I'm imagining freezing cold temperatures, numerous injuries, missing fingers, slivers. But 30C below zero? That's extreme cold. I've been chipping away at Raymond Carver -- A Writer's Life by Carol Sklenicka, and by virtue of him having lives in Yakima, Washington, and other places down the Oregon/Northern California cost, there are a number of references to people working in the logging industry during the early half of the 20th century.

Also came across this interesting gallery of logging photos, most of which are from the same period of time. Here's to hoping those loggers have some peace of mind in their new country.