A US State Department strategy report for the US Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday listed Malta as one of about 20 nations where North Korean slave labourers are currently employed and among countries and individuals who have signed labour contracts with the North Korean regime.
It is believed to be the most comprehensive list of countries hosting North Korean workers that the US government has ever put together. The list could put pressure on those countries to end such practices at a time when labour export has become an increasingly important source of hard currency for Pyongyang.
The 23 countries are Angola, Burma, Cambodia, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Laos, Poland, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.
The report is the latest in a series of measures by Washington to increase pressure on Pyongyang over its human rights record. In July, the US imposed its first-ever sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his role in the country's human rights violations.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is one of the world's most repressive countries," the State Department said in the latest report. "The government seeks to dominate all aspects of its citizens' lives, and it restricts the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression, religion, peaceful assembly, association and movement."
The department outlined its strategy for addressing the situation in the North, largely in three categories: efforts to promote international awareness of the abuses in the North, including helping defectors to share their experiences; providing outside information to North Korean people; and promoting accountability among North Korean officials.
"Those responsible for serious human rights violations in the DPRK must be held accountable," the department said. "While full accountability is a long-term goal, we continue to seek opportunities to promote accountability and to remind DPRK officials that they will be held responsible for their actions."
About 50,000-60,000 North Koreans are believed to be toiling overseas, mainly in the mining, logging, textile and construction industries. The average wage was stated as USD$120 to $150 per month, but in most cases employing firms paid salaries directly to North Korea's government, which reportedly receives more than $100 million from this system per year.
At the end of July a frenzy of Korean media reports alleged that three North Koreans working in Malta had "defected to South Korea."
A number of Korean media reports, from print to television, went on to say that one of the defectors is a construction worker thought to now be living in South Korea after defecting from the island last year.
The other two defectors, according to reports, escaped from a Pyonyang-run restaurant, called 'The Garden' in Malta. It was reported that the restaurant, just one of 130 that North Korea operates in 12 countries to earn foreign currency, closed after six months.
The two workers who defected from the restaurant are said to be a middle-aged man and a woman in her twenties.
Reports emerged after unknown government sources confirmed with Yonhap, a Korean news organisation, that the Maltese government has denied visa extensions for 20 North Korean workers, effectively sending them back to North Korea. There are growing concerns about the North Korean practice of sending workers to Europe, exploiting them through inhumane working conditions and then seizing the majority of their earnings in order to boost state coffers.
Yonhap quoted "diplomatic sources in Valletta" as saying that such a move has come about after diplomatic pressure from South Korea as well as a number of human rights NGOs. The newsroom also reported that all 20 North Koreans who had their visa extension rejected, have been returned back to North Korea.
Questions sent at the time to the government asking to confirm that visa extensions have been withdrawn, asking to confirm whether this came about as a result of South Korean diplomatic pressure, whether three North Koreans defected while working in Malta and lastly on what basis were the North Korean work-visa applications approved in the first place remain unanswered.