Sabtu, 21 Desember 2019

Hong Kong protests: How unrest criminalized a generation - CNN International

How six months of protests
changed Hong Kong forever

By James Griffiths and Jessie Yeung, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) Ivan had screwed up, and now he was trapped.

A member of a small cell of frontline protesters -- one of the many who have fought riot police across Hong Kong during the past six months of anti-government unrest -- his job was handling logistics and keeping an eye on police movements.

Often, he says he would hang back to help make sure equipment was getting to those at the front, helmets and masks passed from person to person in a massive human chain through the protest lines, or to ensure that there was a clear path of retreat for when the police inevitably charged.

On that day in August, amid pouring rain that had hampered police officers’ use of tear gas, Ivan was heading back to the van his protest cell was using to transport supplies. It was only a couple of blocks away, but as he jogged over, he turned onto a side street and suddenly found himself facing a new line of protesters that had splintered off from the main group. Looking behind, he saw a corresponding line of heavily-armed riot police, with a red warning banner held up over their heads.

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Police hold warning flags as they face off against protesters. Credit: Getty Images

“It was very bad timing,” Ivan told CNN, which has agreed to identify him by a pseudonym so he could speak without fear of further repercussions from the police.

“They started charging -- and that’s how I got arrested.”

In that, he is by no means alone. Since the protests escalated in June, more than 6,100 people have been arrested for a range of offenses -- including taking part in unlawful assemblies like the one Ivan attended.

Almost a thousand people have been formally charged so far, but the number is expected to rise, as are arrests, as police pour over the reams of evidence amassed throughout the past six months.

The unrest began with largely peaceful mass marches against a proposed extradition bill with China. Though the bill has since been withdrawn, the initial protests unleashed a torrent of anger and frustration with Hong Kong’s political system. Since June, protesters have demanded an investigation into allegations of police brutality and called for greater democracy.

While the early demonstrations were legally-approved marches, almost everyone who has attended protests in recent months has been at an event deemed unlawful. Many may be guilty of rioting, due to the offense’s broad legal definition, or of violating a ban on facial coverings at public assemblies, which city leaders introduced by invoking rarely-used emergency powers.

The number of people potentially eligible for arrest could number in the hundreds of thousands.

Many of those already arrested, like Ivan, are in their twenties, or even younger. They have been the drivers of the protest movement but have also borne the brunt of the reaction and could be the ones ultimately paying the cost -- an entire generation criminalized, in a fight for their future which could end up costing them just that.

According to police, some are small -- a few hundred people rallying in a park -- and some draw tens of thousands of attendees, often exploding into violence.

CHINA Hong Kong Island New Territories Kowloon Lantau Island Causeway Bay Central,Admiralty Tuen Mun Prince Edward,Mong Kok Sha Tin Yuen Long Airport Tseung Kwan O Tsuen Wan Tai Po Causeway Bay Central,Admiralty Tuen Mun Prince Edward,Mong Kok Sha Tin Yuen Long Airport Tseung Kwan O Tsuen Wan Tai Po Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Six months that changed Hong Kong

While Hong Kong is part of China, it also maintains a degree of autonomy. As a former British colony, it enjoys its own legal and political systems, and protected freedoms of press, speech, and assembly.

When protesters marched in June, it was with one objective -- to demand the withdrawal of a bill they thought threatened those freedoms.

Championed by the city’s top leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the bill would have allowed extradition of fugitives to mainland China.

Hong Kong’s freedoms stand in stark contrast to the mainland, where President Xi Jinping maintains a tight grip on power. China’s legal system is beholden to the ruling Communist Party -- it has a notoriously high conviction rate and a history of political prosecutions. It's one of the main reasons why Hong Kong protesters were so fiercely opposed to the extradition bill; they feared Beijing could use the bill to target political dissidents and erode Hong Kong’s autonomy.

/ Carrie Lam becomes Chief Executive of Hong Kong on July 1, 2017, with a net approval rating of 64% Anti-extradition bill protestsstart in June 2019 Carrie Lams net approval rating drops to 20%,the lowest score among all Chief Executives Carrie Lam becomes Chief Executive of Hong Kong on July 1, 2017, with a net approval rating of 64% Anti-extradition bill protestsstart in June 2019 Carrie Lams net approval rating drops to 20%,the lowest score among all Chief Executives

In June, after protest organizers estimated 2 million people took to the streets, Lam said she wanted to offer the city her "most sincere apology."

"I have heard you loud and clear and have reflected deeply on all that has transpired," she said. "The concerns over the past few months have been caused by the deficiencies of the (Hong Kong) government."

But the standoff continued.

As protests stretched on through the summer, peaceful mass marches were largely replaced by violent clashes with police. Police fired tear gas once, then twice, then every week, while protesters built flaming barricades and threw petrol bombs and bricks.

Chinese state media criticized the protests, with China Daily saying Hong Kong had been plagued by "unwarranted political wrangling and violent radicalism.”

Over several months of street battles, the protest movement coalesced around the slogan “Five demands, not one less.” The first was the withdrawal of the extradition bill, which Lam’s government officially did in September. Remaining demands include: launch an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality; retract the categorization of previous protests as "riots"; provide amnesty for arrested protesters; and introduce full universal suffrage.

1 Fully withdraw the extradition bill. 2 Launch an independentinquiry into alleged police brutality. 3 Retract thecategorization ofprevious protests as “riots.” 4 Amnestyfor arrestedprotesters. 5 Introduction offull universal suffrage.

Many protesters frame the conflict as an all-or-nothing battle between democracy and authoritarianism. They see this as a fight to determine which way the city's future falls -- whether Hong Kong can preserve its autonomy as Beijing grows increasingly assertive -- a desperation reflected in protest slogans like "Save Hong Kong” and “If we burn, you burn with us.”

The unrest has consumed the city, reshaping its politics and creating deep rifts in families and among friends. It has also fundamentally shifted young people’s role in a place that once seemed to overlook them.

In the past six months
there have been

Source: Hong Kong Police Force

Youth movement

Young people and students have driven Hong Kong’s protest movement for years, from marches in 2012 that helped defeat a plan to introduce Chinese-style “patriotic education,” to 2014’s pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. The current unrest is no different.

Yet despite their outsized effect on the city’s politics, Hong Kong’s youth have a reputation -- not always completely warranted -- for being well-behaved and studious.

The city’s hyper-competitive education system means that many spend their teenage years working to meet often-punishing standards set by parents and teachers. Youth crime is practically non-existent. In the first half of 2018, according to police, fewer than a thousand people aged 16 to 20 were arrested, in a city of more than 7 million.

Even billboards and advertising hoardings reflect a lifelong emphasis on education and hard work. Adverts aimed at young people are for cram schools and interview prep classes, while posters on the sides of buses and trams feature the faces of star tutors, mini-celebrities for their ability to get kids into the world’s best institutions.

All this has changed in the past six months. The adverts are still there, but they have been covered by protest art. Graffiti, once confined to a few underpasses, has sprung up everywhere. And Hong Kong’s youth are actively going against the push for educational attainment. Before this summer’s unrest, young people spent their weekends studying for exams and worrying about their grades. Now, many spend their time preparing for the next protest.

Young people have also moved from being the driving force behind the city’s opposition to leading it themselves. The traditional pro-democratic movement -- mostly lawyers and career politicians -- have been marginalized and largely confined to cheerleading from the sidelines.

6,105arrested

2,430students

946under the
age of 18

11age of the
youngest arrested

The most violent scenes in the past six months came as police attempted to clear two occupied university campuses. The campuses became an even more extreme version of what Hong Kong is gradually becoming, taken over by young protesters, who set up bag checks, stockpiled weapons, and even worked in the cafeterias to get everyone fed.

Arrest figures reflect the degree to which this is a young person’s movement. Of more than 6,100 arrested, around 40% are students, and more than 900 are under the age of 18. The youngest is just 11 years old.

Challenging authority

Few things have changed in the past six months more than the city’s relationship with the police.

Many of those now fighting them in the streets grew up idolizing the police. Hong Kong cinema and television is built around cop stories, with “Asia’s finest” facing off against triads and gangsters.

While the mood has been gradually souring since the 2014 Umbrella Movement when police used tear gas against student demonstrators, causing such shock and outrage that they didn’t use it again for the rest of the 79-day unrest -- it has completely flipped this year.

Since June 12, when police used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear protesters who had occupied the streets around the city’s legislature, the protests have become more and more violent -- on both sides.

Police have faced numerous accusations of misconduct, and multiple shocking instances have been caught on camera, including protesters being beaten on the floor, an officer firing his sidearm at an unarmed assailant, and another officer using his motorbike to charge at protesters.

Protesters refer to police as “black dogs” and accuse them of working hand in hand with the Chinese government and triad gangs, which the force denies. Conspiracy theories have proliferated in which seemingly any suspicious death or suicide is blamed on the police, who protesters see as being capable of anything.

Police have consistently argued that their tactics are the result of protester violence and disruption, and have strenuously denied wrongdoing and accusations of brutality. In a statement, police said they have exercised restraint and only use “minimum necessary force” when there are “violent acts” causing a threat to public safety.

/ Jun 200968.3% Jun 201950.4% Nov 201927.2%(Lowest score ever recorded) Jun 200968.3% Jun 201950.4% Nov 201927.2%(Lowest scoreever recorded)

In an October interview with public broadcaster RTHK, Hong Kong leader Lam said police officers have not deliberately adopted violence but have chosen "appropriate" measures for when rioters use violence.

"We should have faith in the rule of law of Hong Kong, which also includes obeying the law," she said.

Ahead of a recent march, police said they had seized bomb materials and a handgun, raising concerns of a shift towards greater violence by protesters, some of whom have targeted individual police officers and attacked bystanders who criticized them.

Police say protesters have even leaked the personal information of police officers and critics of the movement, while businesses believed to be unsupportive of the protests have been vandalized. In some instances, ugly scenes have turned life-threatening; a man who argued with protesters was doused in flammable liquid and set alight, while an elderly man clearing barricades was struck in the head by a brick and later died.

Samuel, a 20-year-old frontline demonstrator who requested anonymity, said that when protesters used petrol bombs in the past, “they were using them to create a fire blockade to stop police -- not to throw them directly.”

“(Whereas) now people are throwing petrol bombs at police, and people throw things from height, like a bike (or bricks),” he added.

The increased violence has seen rising casualties and at least two confirmed protest-related deaths. More than 2,640 people, including around 500 police officers, have been treated at hospitals since June 9.

Even when they’re not policing protests, officers now travel in armored vehicles, and usually in large groups. What in the past used to be regular interactions with the public can quickly turn into ugly confrontations, with people screaming abuse and insults, and officers often responding in kind.

Support for the force has cut across many families and divided swathes of Hong Kong into pro and anti-police camps. Police supporters have staged numerous large rallies defending them, and the government consistently stands by the force -- but the most high-profile praise has been from China. There, Communist Party-controlled media and top officials have held up the force as heroes and the only thing keeping Hong Kong from complete collapse.

During a meeting with Lam in Beijing in December, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the central government’s support for Hong Kong’s leader and the city’s police.

"We will continue to firmly support you in leading the (Hong Kong) government to govern in accordance with the law, firmly support the Hong Kong police in strictly enforcing the law, firmly support all people who love China and Hong Kong, and hope Hong Kong people from all walks of life will unite and work together to bring Hong Kong's development back on track,” Xi told Lam, according to state media.

In the eyes of many young people, however, Xi’s support for the police is yet more proof of their supposed villainy -- and how they are on the side of everything protesters are against.

Rebelling against China

When Hong Kong marked 20 years of Chinese rule in 2017 with a grand ceremony overseen by President Xi, many young people in the city said they did not feel a sense of pride, but one of foreboding.

In theory, the generation born after the 1997 handover, who never knew life in a British colony, should have been the most Chinese yet. They grew up as the country their city now belonged to was becoming a global superpower, richer, more successful and more influential than at any point in the last century.

But any chance of building a new generation of Communist Party-style patriots was undermined by the failure of the Chinese government to deliver on promises made around the handover regarding greater democracy for Hong Kong. Among many, there is a widespread perception that the city’s freedoms are being trampled on by Beijing.

This sense of encroachment has been compounded by the effect of newly-generated Chinese wealth on the city’s economy. Housing in particular has become a major issue in recent years, with the city becoming ever-more unaffordable as Chinese investors and speculators drive up property prices.

The average price per square foot has almost doubled in the past 20 years, according to Midland Realty, a Hong Kong property firm. A recent report by Demographia, an international urban planning policy consultancy, ranked Hong Kong as the least-affordable housing market for the ninth straight year, ahead of New York, London and Sydney.

Average rent is among the highest in the world, and many of Hong Kong’s poorest residents live in so-called “cage homes,” tiny subdivided apartments with little more than a bed. One popular slogan seen graffitied on walls during the protests reads: "7k for a house like a cell and you really think we out here are scared of jail?" Seven thousand Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to around 900 US dollars.

/ March 201740.5% Sep 201840.1% August 201922.8% March 201740.5% Sep 201840.1% August 201922.8%

Since the 2014 protests and even before then, calls for democracy have shifted to demands for more autonomy, if not complete independence from China. Since the current protests began, polls show already low approval ratings for the Beijing government plummeting.

Newly-painted graffiti across the city declares “HK is not China” and “Resist Beijing.” When the Chinese national anthem is played at soccer matches, it accompanied by loud boos and jeers. Chinese-owned shops have been vandalized and boycotted.

There have even been instances of Chinese residents and visitors to Hong Kong being attacked, and others have said they are nervous about speaking Mandarin, such is the depth of anti-China feeling.

Speaking to CNN on background, a senior adviser to the Hong Kong government blamed the failure of the “patriotic education” push for these sentiments.

/ Jun 200924.7% 29.3% Jun 201952.9% 10.8% Jun 200924.7% 29.3% Jun 201952.9% 10.8%

"We lost two generations, we lost them through the schools," the adviser said. "The fundamental problem is that you have a whole generation of young people who are not just dead against, but actually hate China. How are you going to have 'one country, two systems' work if you have a whole generation hating that country?"

“One country, two systems” is the principle adopted by China for governing Hong Kong after 1997. It’s one that has both fierce defenders and critics -- but most importantly, it has a time limit.

In 2047, Hong Kong could in theory lose its status as a special administrative region, and become just like every other Chinese city, without its separate legal or political systems, if Beijing chooses.

Some people, especially young families, are looking to get out while they can. Migration agencies have seen a huge spike in interest; one told CNN in October there had been a 300% increase in inquiries since June.

Others are choosing to stay and fight for democracy through political means. Candidates as young as 22 contested November’s District Council elections. They achieved a stunning victory, with pro-democracy groups taking nearly 90% of seats that were recently available.

District Councils hold very little power, but holding seats gives pro-democrats more of a say in who succeeds Lam as the city's leader in 2022. It also sends a clear message -- they're not done yet.

Deadline for democracy

For many young people 2047 hangs over everything -- it’s why they feel they have to fight so hard against any loss of freedoms, to try and ensure the city is as different as possible when the time comes, so that Beijing will not be able to simply fold it into the rest of China.

Some critics of the movement believe the constant unrest could actually hurt this cause, but protesters see a surrender today as undermining their ability to fight tomorrow.

"If we lose, it's called a riot," one protester told CNN in October. "But if we win, it will be called a revolution, and all the violence will be for good, ultimately."

And many have a more personal reason for not wanting to stop -- it could mean they end up in prison.

Even if they have not yet faced charges or even arrest, protesters know they must live with the fear of possible repercussions in years to come.

Similar mass arrests also took place in 2014 during the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests -- and some of those trials are only wrapping up now. If that's any model to go by, the current protests and arrests "will be a shadow that hangs over the city for the next five years," said Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer and author of "City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong.”

He suggested the government may deliberately try to drag out the process to "increase the psychological and financial pressure" on protesters -- and to deter others from future action.
Police are clear that they want to see further prosecutions, and say the only thing holding them up is the slow speed of the courts.

"All we can do is stop, arrest, and then hopefully prosecute people," a senior police commander told CNN at a background briefing. "We have always been reliant on the details that come at the end of this process ... if there won't be a deterrent sentence at the end of it, then what is the point of arresting them?"

“Just a matter of time, they will get us one by one.” Ivan, frontline protester

Protesters could also face major personal and professional repercussions -- ones the city is potentially not set up to deal with. What do you do when a whole generation of young people have a criminal record?

"It worries me," Ivan said on being charged. "My boss is in theory pro-protests, but at the point that I'm arrested and sent to jail for more than a year, or even half a year? Of course, I will lose that job."

For many like him, the fight for greater democracy in Hong Kong won't be finished until they win. The future of their generation depends on it.

"We seriously need to win this to say to whoever has the power -- the police or the government -- that you cannot do this, you cannot do this to protesters or people fighting for their lives or their own freedom and values," Ivan said. "We cannot afford to lose.”

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A demonstrator sits next to a sign at a rally organized by Hong Kong mothers in support of anti-government protesters in July 2019. Credit: Getty Images

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2019-12-21 01:01:54Z
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Pentagon watching North Korea closely amid signs it may conduct another test - CNN

Administration officials are closely monitoring satellite imagery for signs that North Korea may soon conduct a new round of weapons testing to deliver the "Christmas gift" that Pyongyang's officials have promised the US if it doesn't ease up on sanctions.
Due to North Korean measures to hide activities at several sites, the US cannot be certain what North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may order to be tested, one official said. One scenario suggests a test of a long-range missile or launch of a satellite on a long-range booster.
The Trump administration has been trying to negotiate with North Korea to have it dismantle its nuclear program, which poses a threat to US allies South Korea and Japan, and thousands of US troops based in both countries. Those talks have been stalled, even as Pyongyang has pursued technical improvements to its program that increasingly could put the US within range of its rockets.
Asked about recent comments and indicators from North Korea that Pyongyang may be getting closer to a long-range missile test or some other provocative act, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Friday that the Pentagon does not "discuss any intelligence or indicators" on what the US may be seeing in the way of preparations by North Korea.

'We are prepared'

He added, though, that through the public statements of its officials, "North Korea has indicated a variety of things ... so we are prepared for whatever" Pyongyang may do.
Tensions have ratcheted up as North Korea has conducted two new engine tests since the month began, declaring they were crucial for its nuclear program. It paired the tests with barbed insults about President Donald Trump ahead of a self-imposed end-of-year deadline for securing concessions from the United States.
If the US doesn't ease sanctions, the North has promised the United States a "Christmas gift," an ominous pledge that could presage the resumption of long-range missile tests or a satellite launch, which Pyongyang had paused during bumpy attempts at diplomacy between the two countries.
Pyongyang has already set a record for the number of missiles it launched this year, despite Trump's boasts about his success in establishing a friendship with Kim. Over 2019, North Korea has also conducted tests to improve technologies such as solid fuel, maneuverability, mobility and responsiveness that have implications for its ability to launch long-range systems, analysts say. Trump has downplayed those tests, even as they have violated UN resolutions.

Hopes for diplomacy

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaking to the press Friday at the Pentagon alongside Milley, said he hopes that talks can be restarted and "that we could get the process started again and remain on the diplomatic path."
Pyongyang, however marked the recent trip to the region by Steven Biegun, Trump's special envoy for North Korea, by conducting "another crucial test" -- its second in December.
"Clearly, we think a political solution is the best way forward to denuclearize the peninsula and to address North Korea's programs," Esper said on Friday. But he had started his remarks by noting that "we are in a high state of readiness, prepared to fight and win tonight if need be, and I am confident in that."

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2019-12-20 23:12:00Z
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Jumat, 20 Desember 2019

India extends controls on protests after day of deadly violence - CNN

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in at least 15 cities across the country, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata on Thursday in a show of nationwide public anger against the law considered by many to be unconstitutional and discriminatory against Muslims.
At least two people died in the protests, which saw violent pitched battles between police and protesters in several cities, including Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, and Lucknow. Police fired tear gas, water cannons and used batons against protesters who pelted stones, vandalized and set fire to buildings and buses. Thousands of people were arrested.
Following Thursday's violence, police in the country's largest and most populous state Uttar Pradesh, where one person died in violent protests, have enforced a law banning public gatherings of four or more people for the next 15 days.
The colonial-era restrictions -- known as Section 144 -- will be imposed across the entire state, Avnish Awasthi, senior official in the Uttar Pradesh Home Department told CNN.
Internet services in the state capital Lucknow will also remain suspended until Saturday evening, after protesters set fire to buildings and clashed with police on Thursday.
"Yesterday, internet connectivity in 73 districts was shut down," Awasthi said. "For the rest of the districts in the states, district officials are making individual decisions."
In the capital New Delhi, section 144 remained in place in three key protest areas Friday, police said.
On Thursday at least one telecoms provider said it was directed to suspend services in six areas of the capital during the protests. It was the first time mobile and internet services had been cut in the capital.

Violence, deaths and arrests

On Thursday, two people died from injuries sustained during a protest in the city of Mangalore, in the southern state of Karnataka, a senior doctor at the Highland Hospital told CNN.
One more person died from firearm injuries in Lucknow city, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, according to a senior doctor at the King George Medical University in the city.
Additional Director General of Uttar Pradesh police, P.V. Ramasastry, told CNN that the death in Lucknow was not directly related to the protests.
Some 3,600 people were arrested as a preventative measure in Uttar Pradesh, police said. In Lucknow, 112 preventive arrests were made while 50 people were booked and arrested under various charges.
In the capital New Delhi, 1,200 people were detained for violating a ban on public gatherings. Police told CNN on Friday those people have been released without charge.
Despite the bans, further protests are planned on Friday at the capital's Jamia Milia Islamia University -- which was the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters on Sunday, and a march from the Jama Masjid -- one of the largest mosques in India -- to the iconic India Gate, in central Delhi.
At the center of the unrest is the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed into law last week. The law that promises to fast-track citizenship for non-Muslim religious minorities, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who arrived before 2015.
India is a world leader in Internet shutdowns
The government, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the law will provide safe haven for religious minorities who fled persecution in their home countries. Critics say it undermines the country's secular constitution as it bases citizenship on a person's religion and would further marginalize India's 200-million strong Muslim community.
The Indian government had sought to quell any unrest over the law's passing by banning protests and shutting down the internet and mobile services in several parts of the country.
Many of who marched told CNN the government was using the bans on public gatherings to muzzle the voices of Indian people in the world's largest democracy.
"I have my freedom to protest. It is my fundamental right," said New Delhi student Sidharth Singh, 23. "This is not democracy. Why does the government think it is higher than the constitution?"
Thursday's deaths brings the total to at least seven, after five people were confirmed to have died in ongoing protests in the northeastern state of Assam.
Protests in the northeast are different from the rest of the country, however. Many indigenous groups there fear that giving citizenship to large numbers of immigrants would change the unique ethnic make-up of the region and their way of life, regardless of religion.
Troops were deployed and and internet shut down in several northeastern states amid the protests. On Friday senior Assam official G.P. Singh told CNN, "The mobile internet has been restored" there.

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2019-12-20 10:39:00Z
52780504582595

North Korean Workers Flock Home as Sanctions Deadline Hits - The Wall Street Journal

A construction site in Sakhalin, Russia, early this year, when North Korean workers were in the majority. Photo: ELENA CHERNYSHOVA/Panos Pictures for The Wall Street Journal

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia—Wearing a Nike coat and an Adidas hat, a North Korean laborer waited with 60 compatriots to board a flight home from this city in Russia’s Far East.

After three years of construction work, the laborer, Mr. Ri, was returning with $600, after his pay was docked for missed work due to an injury. He said he would miss his life in Russia, where he enjoyed watching the South Korean news on his mobile phone—until his North Korean handlers confiscated it three months ago to deter defections.

“At least I’m taking back some money from Russia. I won’t receive anything working in Pyongyang,” Mr. Ri said.

Hundreds of North Korean laborers are streaming out of Russia every day, thinning out a workforce that once stood at 30,000. Only several thousand remain. On most days this month, North Korean airline Air Koryo flies twice from Vladivostok to Pyongyang, up from twice a week earlier this year.

The exodus was mandated in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council. Tightening sanctions in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Security Council barred countries from issuing new worker permits and said they would have to expel the regime’s workers within two years. That deadline arrives on Sunday.

The worker recall cuts one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s biggest remaining sources of legitimate revenue and poses a challenge to his isolated regime as nuclear talks with the U.S. stall.

Moscow promised to abide by the sanctions, as did China, which employs more of the Kim regime’s laborers than Russia does, according to experts.

Dec. 22 is the deadline for countries to expel North Korean workers under U.N. sanctions imposed two years ago on Kim Jong Un and his regime. Photo: KCNA/Associated Press

China and Russia submitted this week a draft resolution to the Security Council that proposes lifting the ban on migrant workers and allowing some North Korean exports, but the U.S., which can veto resolutions, called it premature to consider sanctions relief, the State Department said.

Pyongyang’s overseas workforce once totaled more than 100,000 people, bringing earnings to the North Korean government of as much as $2 billion a year before sanctions were tightened, according to analysts.

Russia has hosted North Korean workers since the 1950s, longer than any other country.

In Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, construction sites once filled by the Kim regime’s overseas workforce are nearly empty, and Korean restaurants have shut down. The Wall Street Journal talked with more than a dozen North Korean laborers in those cities. All provided only surnames, because of concerns about being identified by the regime.

North Korean laborers gathered at the Air Koryo check-in counter before flying home from Vladivostok, Russia. Photo: Dasl Yoon/The Wall Street Journal

The laborers worked 13-hour shifts and ate little more than two bowls of rice a day, they said. They had to buy their own socks and blankets. Pyongyang officials hoarded their wages and confiscated as much as 90%, they said, paying them upon departure. Workers were given $15 a month in spending money.

Despite the tough conditions, the jobs were coveted, largely filled by middle-class Pyongyang residents with Workers’ Party membership who bribed their way to overseas posts. One worker, a Mr. Kim, said he had earned about $3,000 over four years, and hoped to return to Russia.

“I’m going back home for the first time in three years because of the sanctions. I wish I had more money to take back, but at least I’ll see my family,” said Mr. Kim.

Before leaving, he stocked up on cigarettes he hoped would aid his path back to Russia—though he acknowledged it could take years.

U.S. officials have accused Russia of lax enforcement of U.N. sanctions. Russia’s ambassador to North Korea said this month that Moscow was on track to comply with the deadline. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow abides by international sanctions imposed on North Korea, including the resolution requiring the repatriation of laborers.

Moscow has its own reasons to comply. While cheap North Korean labor was especially valuable to Russia’s Far East at a time of rapid construction and economic development, building has slowed as the Russian economy faces stagnation. Where cheap labor is still needed, regional governments have been replacing the North Koreans with Chinese and Vietnamese workers.

Compliance in China is harder to gauge, experts said. North Koreans working in China are more often employed in textile factories or seafood-processing plants, making them easier to conceal than construction workers.

China, North Korea’s vital ally, says it is complying with all U.N. sanctions. In March, Beijing said about half of the North Korean migrant workers in China had been sent home, without disclosing a figure.

As North Korean workers leave Russia, more enter on tourism and education visas, which aren’t banned by sanctions. During the first nine months of 2019, 12,834 tourist visas and 7,162 student visas were issued to North Koreans, each rising about sixfold and threefold respectively from a year earlier, according to Russian government data.

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Many of these visitors are likely working in Russia, experts said. But their visas last months, not years, and they may only be able to do menial jobs, such as farming, said Kang Dong-wan, a professor at Dong-A University in South Korea.

“The income and scale of operation will be nowhere close to what it used to be,” Mr. Kang said.

It would also be difficult for Russia to allow North Korean workers back to construction sites, where they would be easier to spot, said Artyom Lukin, an expert on Russia-Asia relations at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.

“The majority of laborers won’t be able to return,” Mr. Lukin said. “Russia could turn a blind eye to some laborers that come back next year, but there’s a limit.”

North Korea faces a challenge in replacing the lost revenue from migrant workers, but it does have illicit methods, said Jason Arterburn, lead analyst at C4ADS, a Washington-based research organization that has studied North Korea’s overseas workforce.

“There’s increasingly a shift towards cyberattacks to raise significant sums of money,” Mr. Arterburn said.

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