Human Rights NGO Files Federal Petition to Block Seafood Tied to North Korean Workers
The impact of our recent investigation into China’s role in the world’s seafood supply and specifically the series’ third story revealing the broad use of captive North Korean workers in Chinese plants that export to the U.S. and E.U is beginning to gather force.
Last week the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a human rights and advocacy organization, submitted a formal letter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, calling for immediate halt of shipments of seafood from nearly a dozen Chinese companies that were found to be using North Korean labor, in violation of U.S. law and U.N. sanctions.
Submitted on March 21, 2024, the letter is based on an investigation published by the Outlaw Ocean Project that was released in partnership with the New Yorker magazine in February. The letter calls on the agency to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws, including Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which specifically bans the import to the U.S. of products tied to North Korean labor. The letter also calls for the agency to implement stricter monitoring mechanisms to prevent the importation of goods produced through forced labor, among other tangible actions that could be taken by the U.S. government.
The letter from the NGO is a recent development in a series of ongoing actions globally, which are being tracked on the Outlaw Ocean’s Impact page for this particular investigation.
North Korean laborers are often sent to various countries across the world, working under conditions often described as forced labor to earn foreign currency for the regime. These laborers are employed in diverse sectors, including hospitality, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, and their wages are largely appropriated by the North Korean government, contributing to its nuclear and missile programs. The seafood processing sector in the Chinese province of Liaoning, is a prime example.
The story about the use of North Korean labor was the third part of a series that ran in the New Yorker. It focused on human-rights and environmental abuses in the global seafood industry. The story about North Korean workers revealed that over a thousand such workers spread across at least ten processing plants were held captive and often sexually abused, having been dispatched to China by the North Korean government. The investigation also found that much of the seafood coming from these plants supply major American companies.
The exportation of goods produced through such exploitative labor practices to the U.S. raises serious concerns regarding compliance with CAATSA, which was enacted on August 2, 2017. This law is meant to empower sanctions such as those imposed on Iran, Russia, and North Korea. These sanctions are meant to curb their aggressive actions and policies. Regarding North Korea, CAATSA particularly addresses concerns over labor practices, nuclear proliferation, and economic activities that support the regime's military capabilities.
The ten companies cited in the investigation and letter include:
Dalian Haiqing Food (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Galicia Seafood (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Hailong Foodstuff (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Omeca Food (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Taihua Foodstuff (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff (bait-to-plate, discussion);
Donggang Jinhui Foodstuff (bait-to-plate, discussion); and
Donggang Luyuan Food (bait-to-plate, discussion).
This letter is only the most recent development in a series of measures taken by NGOs, lawmakers, and the private sector to call upon governments to increase scrutiny of global seafood supply chains.
Various legal petitions have been filed in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom since October 2023. This includes sanctions petitions filed in the U.K., Canada, and the United States, calling on their respective governments to implement sanctions against seven Chinese companies that the OO investigation found to be complicit in serious human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs workers in China’s seafood industry. Additionally, in November 2023, two other legal filings were submitted by NGOs calling on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to to stop squid tied to Chinese distant water fishing vessels identified in an investigation from entering the country.
American lawmakers have also directed their attention at companies, having written, for example, letters to Sysco and Costco inquiring how they plan to ensure that future audits will adequately prevent seafood tied to Xinjiang and North Korean forced labor from entering the United States. A bipartisan commission created by the White House and Congress held a hearing in October 2023 to discuss the presence of seafood made with forced labor on Chinese ships and in China’s processing factories throughout the U.S. supply chain.
In Europe, on March 1, 2024, Members of European Parliament Caroline Roose and Mounir Satouri, both representing France, sent a letter to the European Commission and the President of the European Parliament following up on Le Monde's publication of The Outlaw Ocean Project investigation. The letter asked about E.U. Parliament ties to the Compass Group, a company that the investigation tied to North Korean labor and supplying catering services to the European Parliament. This came shortly before negotiators from the E.U. Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on new rules to ban products made with forced labor from the E.U. market. See additional reporting on that here and here.
For more information about the Outlaw Ocean Project’s investigation into North Korean forced labor in the Chinese seafood sector, please see the story and video about the use of North Korean forced labor in the Chinese seafood processing sector; the Discussion page tied to the companies in the formal letter; and the Bait-to-Plate page tracing seafood from these companies to grocers in North America and Europe.
If you have any questions about this matter, please email us. (media@theoutlawocean.com). Or reach out to Greg Scarlatoiu, the Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. (executive.director@hrnk.org).
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