A regional city in Russia reportedly scrapped a plan to deploy North Korean workers for sanitation work due to high labor costs and instead hired workers from Africa.
On the 13th (local time), U.S.-based outlet NK News, which focuses on North Korea, said Orenburg Mayor Albert Yumadilov of Russia said in a recently released interview that the city held talks last year with the North on hiring workers but failed to reach a final agreement.
Orenburg, which borders Kazakhstan, was said to have considered employing North Korean workers because it needed personnel to handle public tasks, including street cleaning.
Yumadilov said the city could pay sanitation workers 55,000 rubles a month. That is about $715 and 1.06 million won.
By contrast, he said he was told during the talks that North Korean workers receive monthly pay of $1,400 to $2,100 in their home country, or about 2.09 million to 3.13 million won. "As far as I know, North Korean workers will not come (to Russia) for 55,000 rubles a month," he said. "We cannot afford their wages."
Although the hiring fell through, he gave high marks to the North Korean workers' capabilities. Yumadilov said, "I saw North Korean workers myself, and they work like robots. They really look like robots," adding, "Their productivity is high."
Orenburg ultimately turned to workers from Africa. It is now said that 31 workers from Senegal are handling street cleaning.
Experts, however, noted that the wage level Yumadilov mentioned is unlikely to reflect the actual income of ordinary North Korean workers.
Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute and an expert on the North Korean economy, said that if North Korea can quote labor at that level, "its publicity department is very good."
Some high earners in information technology (IT), party officials, or those in the munitions industry may receive similar real compensation when including rations and housing, but that differs greatly from the average income of ordinary workers.
He stressed, "The average North Korean worker's wage is closer to 1,400 won than $1,400."
Chris Monday, a professor at Dongseo University who studies the Russian economy, also raised the possibility that the North Korean government and brokers take a substantial portion of the wages of workers dispatched overseas. He also suggested that North Korean brokers may have demanded a higher amount by taking advantage of Russia's severe labor shortage.
Monday said, "It sounds like North Korean brokers are ripping Russia off."