Walmart, Aldi salmon buyers subsidizing N. Korea nukes?

Associated Press

HUNCHUN, China

For North Koreans outsourced by their government to process seafood that ends up in American homes and stores, privacy is forbidden, they have no access to telephones or email and they are paid a fraction of their salaries, while the rest - as much as 70 percent - is taken by the government.

This means Americans buying salmon for dinner at Walmart or ALDI may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an AP investigation has found. Their purchases also may have supported what the United States calls “modern day slavery” – even if the jobs are highly coveted by North Koreans.

At a time when North Korea faces sanctions on many exports, the government is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide, bringing in an estimated $200-$500 million a year in revenue that could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says topped $1 billion.

While the presence of North Korean workers overseas has been documented, the investigation reveals for the first time that some products they make go to the United States, which is now a federal crime. AP also tracked the products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.