They toil day and night on construction sites, far away from their families. North Korean workers are sent all over the world by the regime to bring foreign currency into the country for the nuclear programme - under inhumane conditions. Executive Producer Tristan Chytroschek from Hamburg set out with an international team of journalists in Russia, Poland and China in search of the Dollar Heroes - the results can be seen for the first time on ARTE on 6 February.
"I think I lost a lot of my grey hair during the filming.Dollar Heroes grown. It's the biggest, most difficult, most dangerous and legally trickiest film we've ever produced," reveals Tristan Chytroschek. The Hamburg-based Executive Producer (a&o buero) worked with a team of around 20 journalists and filmmakers for more than three years on a documentary about North Korea'sDollar Heroes worked. This is the name given to the North Korean forced labourers who are sent out into the world by the North Korean regime with only one goal in mind: To earn foreign currency for Kim Jong Un's state apparatus - under slave-like conditions. "They only get a fraction of their wages, the rest goes to North Korea. So that there is still something left for them and their families, the North Korean labourers have to work day and night on the construction site," says Tristan Chytroschek. A flourishing business that, according to the film, makes North Korea the world's largest illegal labour agency. It is estimated that around 100,000 North Koreans work abroad for foreign currency - at wages that can hardly be described as such and are far below any standards.
Chytroschek became aware of the topic in 2013 through a small article in the New York Times. A short time later, the BBC and the Danish The Why Foundation announced a competition with the theme "Why Slavery". The Hamburg-based Executive Producer, who himself had worked for the BBC in the UK for a long time, applied with Dollar Heroes - and was awarded the contract. But what is the best way to report on a topic that nobody actually wants to talk about? "Fortunately, I knew an Executive Producer in South Korea who I called immediately, and then we spun the web of collaborators piece by piece," says Chytroschek. The film was mainly shot in Russia, Poland and China, countries that are considered to be the biggest buyers of cheap North Korean labour thanks to the booming construction industry.
However, the film team suffered a major setback in Russia. They had travelled from construction site to construction site for the filming and talked to North Korean workers about their situation. "One morning, the police and immigration officials stood outside the film team's rented flat. Our employees were told it was a routine check - but somehow they must have got wind of our research work. When I got the call in Hamburg, I was really worried. We then rang the embassy. After four hours, the team was released. However, they were told in no uncertain terms to leave the country immediately," says Tristan Chytroschek. A new team with a new cover story then had to be assembled as quickly as possible. Great attention was paid to security. The team only worked with encrypted emails, WhatsApp was completely taboo. Even the editing computer with the video material was disconnected from the network so that it could not fall victim to hacker attacks.
The North Korean Park Seung-ho worked as a forced labourer in Russia before fleeing to South Korea.
When the team continued their research at a shipyard in Poland, all data was deleted from the mobile phones and no one had any private documents such as passports or driving licences with them. "Before we went to the shipyard, we informed production in Hamburg and cancelled our registration there. If we hadn't reported back after an agreed time, our people in Germany would have taken action and sent someone out to look for us," says Tristan Chytroschek. Before the shipyard visit, they even sat down with shipyard workers from Hamburg to draft a watertight cover story for the visit. The film was mostly shot with tiny, button-sized cameras that nevertheless record in HD quality. However, around 90 per cent of the footage filmed could not be used in the end in order not to endanger the North Korean workers and other people involved. "We had three teams of lawyers and several North Korea experts who advised us during the work. For example, we found out that even distorted voices can be traced back through the dialect. That's why we had to hire Korean speakers to dub the voices of our interviewees," says Chytroschek.
Executive Producer Tristan Chytroschek from a&o buero
But why don't the workers simply flee the foreign exchange countries and leave? As a rule, North Korea only sends men with their families and children abroad. If someone tries to leave, the family has to pay for it. Incidentally, the workers have no contact with their loved ones, as calls are not put through to North Korea. The men live in isolation in their own barracks in the foreign countries, largely shielded from the outside world. "Many of the fates are very touching. When we met with one of the workers, a family with a child walked past us. The North Korean asked why he couldn't live like this, what he had done wrong. You have to swallow hard," says Chytroschek.
A film that touches and impressively reveals how North Korea finances its military by any means necessary on the backs of its compatriots. The result of the last three years can be seen for the first time on 6 February in the evening programme on ARTE (10 pm). The investigative documentary is available until 8 March in theMedia library available.
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