DPRK Construction Workers on Trial in Dubai

Two construction workers from the DPRK are on trial in Abu Dhabi, UAE, accused of the attempted murder of three Emratis and two Bangladeshis with whom they were fighting.  The two DPRK workers were looking for another DPRK laborer who “had been missing for months” at a house under renovation.  While they searched the house they became involved in a dispute with the Emeratis and Bangladeshis.  According to The Nation, the attorney for the two DPRK construction workers said that “the victims held the defendants hostage, restricted their movement and reported them to police, claiming they were stealing.  This made the defendants nervous and they freaked out so they tried to escape from the place.  But then two of the victims ran after them and caught one of them and beat him up severely with their hands, legs and canes.”  One of the DPRK  workers was taken to a hospital after one of the Emratis “knocked one of the North Korean mean unconscious after he tried to slap him.”  The DPRK construction workers’ attorney said that “even if we were to assume that he did slap one of the victims, this is not considered an attempt to murder because of the circumstances of the situation.”   When the trial began in mid December 2013, the DPRK workers refused to testify or participate in the hearings because the interpreter provided by the courts was from South Korea.  The two DPRK defendants said that “their government forbids citizens from speaking to translators from the South and have demanded someone from their own country.”

As of 2009 there were about 1,300 DPRK laborers living and working in the UAE.