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Article

13 Oct 2011

Author:
Simon Ostrovsky, Newsnight [UK]

[video] Newsnight

[starts at 33.03; transcript:] Edinburgh Woollen Mill...labels...do not say that it was...made...in Mongolia by North Korean workers...[The workers] get food and board but there is a mistery about what happens to their wages...At the factory we were told that Eermel paid the North Korean government not the workers directly...North Korean citizens are not allowed to leave the country without permission...There is an exception...the labour brigades...Thousands of North Koreans have been brought to Mongolia over the last few years in an arrangement...that has been very profitable for the private companies...[Eermel's exports director] said it was up to the North Korean government to decide how much they gave the workers...Edinburgh Woollen Mills confirms that the Eermel factory supplies them with cashmere jumpers...Edinburgh Woollen Mill did not confirm...how the North Koreans were paid...They said Eermel had told them "no funds are paid to North Korea or any North Korean agency"..."Some of the workers of the Eermel factory migrate to Mongolia from North Korea to seek work"