A black market money changer was doing a roaring business at Vladivostok Airport in Russia's Far East on Dec. 20 as nearly 100 North Korean workers loaded up with luggage waited to board a flight home to Pyongyang.

The group was leaving ahead of a Dec. 22 deadline for countries to send back North Korean workers under a U.N. resolution two years ago aimed at reining in Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.

The black market money changer was busy exchanging rumpled Russian ruble notes for American currency in the form of $1 and $5 bills.

A North Korean who decided to stay in Russia as a defector said North Korean workers eagerly exchange their savings earned in Russia into U.S. dollars.

“Rubles are rarely used in North Korea, so they need to exchange their cash into U.S. currency,” the 57-year-old man explained. “By the same token, North Korean workers invariably end up with a lot of luggage because they want to take all the stuff they bought in Russia with them.”

North Korea sends tens of thousands to work in other countries each year, and the vast majority go to Russia and China.

Moscow decided to comply with the U.N. resolution by expelling all North Koreans in the country by the deadline.

Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, said in an interview with a news agency in September that not a single North Korean worker will be left in Russia by Dec. 22.

One of the returning North Koreans said it is the first time for him to go back to his home country in five years. Another said he worked in the construction industry. One person in the group observed it is not easy to make a living, regardless of where one is.

All of the workers who spoke to an Asahi Shimbun reporter said they had no idea if they will see Russia again.

The exodus of North Korean workers from Russia is keeping Air Koryo, North Korea's state-owned national flag carrier, busy. It operated two flights a week between Vladivostok and Pyongyang until October, and now offers two flights a day on weekdays.

According to a U.S. State Department report and other data, Pyongyang sent more than 90,000 of its nationals to other countries as workers in the latter half of 2018.

The North Korean regime makes it a practice to ensure the workers pay most of their wages to it.

This method allowed Pyongyang to accrue an estimated $500 million (54.5 billion yen) a year in the past.

Although Russia opted to meet the deadline for expelling North Koreans workers, it is in talks with China to prepare a resolution calling for the ban to be lifted on North Koreans working abroad by the U.N. Security Council.

In contrast with Russia, China has switched to issuing short-term visas, rather than a long-term work visa, to secure a stable labor force from North Korea.

Most North Koreans work at seafood and other factories in northeastern China under a one-month visa issued for sightseeing or training purposes, according to sources familiar with trade between the two countries.

The requirement that they leave when the visa expires spawned a new business in Jian, Jilin province.

Outdoor stalls mushroomed from around October near a bridge over the Yalu River, which acts as a natural border between the two countries, to sell goods to returning North Koreans.

“Many North Koreans come back to China on the afternoon of the day they left for home,” said one vendor. “Up to 20 buses shuttle between the borders a day, loading more than 500 people in total.”

China’s switch to a new visa status allowed it to retain a reliable workforce from North Korea, according to the sources.

Accepting North Korean workers in this manner could constitute a violation of the U.N. resolution.

But reining in Beijing is not easy as it is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and has veto power.

KIM UPS ANTE WITH U.S.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called on the United States to offer a new proposal by the end of December over stalled denuclearization talks.

Kim warned that Pyongyang will give Washington a “Christmas present” unless it is willing to make a concession over the denuclearization talks.

On Dec. 22, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported that the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea held an expanded meeting of its Central Military Commission to discuss strengthening the country’s self-defense.

The meeting follows reports that after a series of missile test launches Pyongyang may have recently tested a new rocket engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

A South Korean defense expert said North Korea may try to heighten tensions by testing an ICBM.

“But I think it's more likely that Pyongyang will set pulses racing by loading an ICBM on a launcher, but stop short of launching it right away,” the expert said. “North Korea will simply say it plans to test the rocket for the launch of an artificial satellite.”

Kim said in his New Year’s address in January that North Korea will pursue a “new path” if the United States fails to soften its stance before the end of the year.

A senior official with the South Korean government said there is a growing prospect that Kim will suspend talks with Washington and lean more toward China and Russia.

“Kim may announce the suspension of negotiations with the United States in his New Year’s address next month or on other occasion,” the official said. “It seems likely he will move to further deepen relations with China and Russia."

The picture that emerges would be one the international community is already familiar with: North Korea builds up its military capability while securing economic assistance from major allies China and Russia.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yoshihiro Makino in Vladivostok, Yoshikazu Hirai in Shenyang, China, and Takeshi Kamiya in Seoul.)