Once they were the tallest and most comely women 
in their villages, but now they’re faceless in maroon 
uniforms and masks, white rubber boots; not allowed 
to chat or sing or stop to flex their aching hands, numb 
from the cold, or raise their masks. They didn’t choose 
to leave their homes and come here; were sent to process 
seafood, serve as sex workers at the foreman’s parties, 
locked into dorms at night. Because any one of them 
could be a spy, they dare not say their names, tell 
the others how the dampness haunts their dreams; 
the penetrating stink of shrimp entrails stalks them 
everywhere, as does the static-stutter of fluorescent lights, 
blinking out an SOS no one will heed. There’s nothing human 
in this place, except the smell of sweat and fear, dry tongues 
swelling in their mouths. No wonder they are silent, eyes 
lowered, hiding what they feel; that they can feel at all. 

—After an anonymous photograph:

Untitled photograph shot in 2023 by anonymous investigator,
of anonymous North Korean workers in Chinese seafood factory

Image appears here with permission, from an article by Ian Urbina in The New Yorker (25 February 2024), “Inside North Korea’s Forced-Labor Program”;
link confirmed on 20 December 2025:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/inside-north-koreas-forced-labor-program-in-china

Bio: Robbi Nester