China’s fishing fleet used North Korean forced labor, potentially violating U.N. sanctions, report says

FORUM Staff

A fleet of Chinese-flagged, long-distance fishing vessels relied for years on forced labor from North Korea to crew its ships in the Indian Ocean, potentially violating international economic sanctions against the Pyongyang regime, according to a new report.

The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation interviewed 19 crew members from Indonesia and the Philippines who worked with the North Koreans. Its investigative report, “Trapped at Sea: Exposing North Korean forced labour on China’s Indian Ocean tuna fleet,” found at least 12 ships used North Korean laborers between 2019 and 2024, with some crew members shuffled between vessels to avoid detection.

“It appears that the captains of these vessels actively attempted to hide the fact that North Koreans were on board — either by concealing them at ports or transferring them to sister vessels while at sea. This indicates that vessel captains, and likely vessel owners, were aware that the use of this labor was prohibited,” according to the February 2025 report.

United Nations Security Council resolutions prohibit employing North Koreans or engaging in financial transactions that benefit the North Korean regime because of concerns such payments will finance dictator Kim Jong Un’s illegal nuclear and ballistic weapons programs. However, China is a key destination for North Korean labor exported by Kim and is believed to host up to 100,000 workers, including in seafood processing plants, the foundation reported.

Beijing has the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet and China-flagged vessels are the leading perpetrators of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to a December 2023 report by Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. IUU fishing accounts for up to 14 million metric tons of catch each year and imposes an estimated annual economic toll of up to $50 billion worldwide, according to researchers.

China also is the leading abuser of forced labor on fishing vessels globally, according to a November 2023 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Financial Transparency Coalition, which found that 25% of commercial fishing vessels suspected of abusing workers flew under China’s flag.

“Illegal fishing and human rights abuses can be found almost without exception on board China’s distant-water vessels,” Steve Trent, chief executive officer and founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said in a news release.

The Indonesian and Philippine crew members recounted verbal and physical abuse, forced overtime, deception about wages, and isolation at sea, according to the foundation. The North Koreans were forced to work up to 10 years at sea, in some instances, without setting foot on land.

“This would constitute forced labor of a magnitude that surpasses much of that witnessed in a global fishing industry already replete with abuse,” the foundation said.

Indonesian crew members interviewed by The New York Times newspaper said the North Koreans told them their salaries went straight to Kim’s regime. North Korean crew members said they worked on the Chinese fishing vessels to escape military conscription, according to The Guardian, a London-based newspaper. The North Koreans said they had to choose between working in plantations or at a government enterprise, or aboard Chinese fishing vessels. A Philippine crew member told the foundation’s investigators that the North Koreans bonded with their counterparts over their shared nemesis.

“We got along because we were on the same side,” he said. “We didn’t want to be oppressed by the Chinese.”