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Do AES countries restrict citizens from leaving? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In the US, I’ve heard that countries like the USSR and North Korea prevent citizens from leaving. Is this propaganda or do AES countries tend to prevent more people leaving than others?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most of the time, I don’t think so. For the DPRK specifically thousands of people have permits to work and live outside of the country, while it’s the South that restricts people going north. The only actual example I can think of is in the GDR where they were dealing with the problem of people getting good free education and housing there but going to West Germany to get a higher paying job.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Haven't heard of a DPRKorean who lives outside DPRK, I thought most of them were only allowed to work in Russia or the PRC, since that's what liberal me was fed to regarding info about the DPRK at the time.

Also, to add with OP's question, are DPRKoreans allowed to keep passports to themselves? Or only the government is allowed to have them (from which the DPRKoreans must return their passport back to the passport office once landing in DPRK)?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

A lot of them go to South Korea, whereupon they are considered by the government there to be South Korean citizens, and then prohibited from going back to the North. So in a way there are technically no DPRK citizens in south Korea, because south Korea stops recognizing them as DPRK citizens once they cross the border. If you haven't seen loyal citizens of Pyeongyang in Seoul I'd recommend it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Idk all the details, but yeah, the work permits are mostly for China/Russia, but that’s probably because most countries sanction the DPRK more, and don’t want them there. I know there are people who’ve gone to China and then to somewhere like South Korea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

but i thought chinese police send them back to the dprk if they spot them?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe its not widely enforced, and only if they don't have the proper documents. Since DPRK and China are allies, maybe China only sends them back if their hands are tied.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I would assume people without work permits and such documents would get sent back if caught by authorities, as that is generally a normal law in most countries. (Just my assumption; I'm not aware of the specific laws in China around this.)

The reduction in visa renewals for north Koreans working/residing in China is a result of (US-led) UN sanctions:

Article from 2017: "North Korean workers leave China because of UN sanctions."

More and more North Korean workers are being forced to leave China following the sanctions imposed by the UN on 12 September. Beijing has announced the closure of all North Korean companies and joint ventures within 120 days, and a clamp down on the issuance and renewal of visas. [...] The closure resulted in the departure of about 2,600 North Koreans from the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang alone, where workers are employed in the fishing industry. A photo showing hundreds of North Korean women waiting for repatriation is circulating on WeChat, a widespread messaging application in China. It is estimated that at least 100,000 North Korean workers reside outside the country of origin to earn strong currency, for an annual total of remittance estimated at around US $ 500 million.

Although China went along with the 2017 round of sanctions, in 2022 China and Russia vetoed a new round of UN sanctions on DPRK and proposed lifting some of the earlier sanctions from 2017, as they felt the US had failed to engage in its end of peaceful diplomacy with DPRK and therefore the sanctions should be reduced and no further ones should be imposed.

It seems to me that China would be and is fine with DPRK citizens living and working in China, but is forced into a diplomatic balancing act as they try to maintain peace conditions while the imperialists are on their usual mission to split up and destroy their economic rivals by any methods they can achieve.