It was as early as the latter half of the 1940s when North Korean laborers began to work at construction, logging and fishing sites in Russia's Far East. Such work resumed following an interruption during the 1950-53 Korean War. As none volunteered, criminals, who committed a succession of thefts and violence, were first mobilized for the work. At the protest of the Soviet Union government, North Korea began to send model workers to Russian logging sites in the 1970s. In the absence of volunteers, the authorities still had to resort to forceful means in sending loggers to Russia.

In due course, however, the North Korean loggers invited the envy of neighbors when they returned home carrying a quantity of electric home appliances and foods. Public perception of loggers began to improve from that time. Upon arriving logging sites, North Korean workers exerted themselves to make money. Having exhaustively bought commodities available in the local market, North Korean loggers earned the nickname of "grasshoppers" in the 1980s. As the local authorities made an issue of the practice, Kim Il Sung during his visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 raised the wages of the loggers and changed the currency paid to them from the North Korean won to ruble.

Those changes resulted in a golden age for the North Korean loggers in Russia for some time. Earning over 100 rubles (equivalent to US $120 at that time) a month, some successful loggers returned home carrying 2.4 tons of daily necessities. The follwoing perception prevailed, "You can bring home appliances; including a TV sets, refrigerators and tape recorders. Once you manage to get there, you can make money without fail." This gave rise to bribing officials in an attempt to get recruited for the logging operation in the Soviet Union. To prevent possible fleeing from the work sites, needless to say successful applicants had to meet the three conditions of holding party membership, favorable family background and being married.

But for the entire three-year contract period the loggers have to put up with a hellish bachelor-like life at the logging sites in thick forests. Not every logger can make money, either. Bribes are essential if one wants to get assigned to a favorable working site with parts and necessary tools. Even remittances back to home of earned money sometimes need bribes. As a consequence, some loggers end up accumulating debts.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, making money got even more difficult due to serious inflation and suspended supply of parts. Nonetheless, many ordinary North Koreans still aspire to work as loggers in Russia in a bid to improve their fate. Once they become loggers, they can eat ordinary meals at the least, which is a far cry from the reality in the North.

The number of North Korean loggers in Russia is said to have plummeted to less than 5,000 now from a peak of 20,000-30,000 in the 1980s. Since it's difficult to accumulate money through logging alone, many of them are engaged in side jobs as well like commerce and house repairing for the Russians.

(Kim Sung Chol, 40, defected to South Korea in 1994 while working as a logger in Russia. A graduate of Hamhung College of Water Supply, Kim is a researcher at the North Korean Research Institute.)