Pyongyang targets workplace absenteeism scheme that keeps workers and officials afloat

2026-02-13 - 22:15

North Korean authorities have begun criticizing enterprises’ customary practice of aekbeori—allowing workers to skip workplace attendance to pursue private commercial activities in return for a set payment—ahead of the Ninth Party Congress. “Late last month, the case of a worker at a mining equipment factory in Chongjin who was engaged in aekbeori and refused to return even after being ordered... Source