Conquer Club

Garments labelled "Designed in Scotland" and sold by a UK high street chain are being made by North Korean labour in Mongolian factories, the BBC's Newsnight programme has found.

Newsnight discovered that some cashmere jumpers sold by Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) are made in a factory where 80 of the workers are from North Korea.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill said the labels are "factually correct" and they do not discriminate about who they employ, but there are questions about what happens to North Korean workers' wages.
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The North Korean workers in the Eermel factory in Mongolia are given food and a place to sleep, but according to Eermel's export director, Bayar, their wages are paid to the North Korean government.

"We are transferring the money to the account of the light industry of North Korea," Bayar told Newsnight.

He said he did not know how much of the wages were given to the workers: "How they split - divide the salary - we don't know."

BigBallinStalin wrote:I almost pushed the button for "Reagan's Fault," but this is definitely the work of the God Particle.

bbc news wrote:Garments labelled "Designed in Scotland" and sold by a UK high street chain are being made by North Korean labour in Mongolian factories, the BBC's Newsnight programme has found.

Newsnight discovered that some cashmere jumpers sold by Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) are made in a factory where 80 of the workers are from North Korea.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill said the labels are "factually correct" and they do not discriminate about who they employ, but there are questions about what happens to North Korean workers' wages.
...
The North Korean workers in the Eermel factory in Mongolia are given food and a place to sleep, but according to Eermel's export director, Bayar, their wages are paid to the North Korean government.

"We are transferring the money to the account of the light industry of North Korea," Bayar told Newsnight.

He said he did not know how much of the wages were given to the workers: "How they split - divide the salary - we don't know."

saxitoxin wrote:Stories like this are why I don't wear clothes.

BigBallinStalin wrote:Does that technically mean that those workers are de facto slaves of the NK government?

The US State Department estimates that around 100,000 North Koreans are employed in work brigades in Russia, China and Mongolia, generating hundreds of millions of pounds a year for leader Kim Jong-il's regime.

The labour brigades are usually overseen by North Korean officials who maintain similar tight controls to those faced by the workers back in their totalitarian homeland.

Haggis_McMutton wrote:

BigBallinStalin wrote:Does that technically mean that those workers are de facto slaves of the NK government?

Pretty much.

The US State Department estimates that around 100,000 North Koreans are employed in work brigades in Russia, China and Mongolia, generating hundreds of millions of pounds a year for leader Kim Jong-il's regime.

The labour brigades are usually overseen by North Korean officials who maintain similar tight controls to those faced by the workers back in their totalitarian homeland.