North Korea: Labour Migration from a Closed State
Journal: Migration Mobility & Displacement
Year: 2016

Most East and Southeast Asian countries have made a transition from being sources of labour migrants to recipients of migrants. North Korea has largely remained outside this structure until recent decades when economic downturns have led to its emergence as a growing source of labour migrants. Much of that migration is clandestine and tightly controlled. Most labour migrants have gone to adjoining Russia and China but workers have also gone to Gulf countries, Europe, Africa and elsewhere in Asia