VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- In the Davydova neighborhood in the northern part of town, one apartment block after another has been under construction for years. Thus, there are always North Korean laborers around.
They accept lower wages than Russians, work on weekends and, reportedly, hand over their wages to their government. Their shabby outfits are all similar -- not the Mao tunics of their Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, but striped shirts and plaid pants, which they buy in the Vietnamese market. Sometimes their shoes are falling apart. The North Koreans always travel in twos and threes when they stroll in the city. Like young Arabs, the men hold hands.
If North Korea feels close here in this port city on the Sea of Japan, it is -- just 140 km away. Vladivostok provides a back window onto the Stalinist Democratic People's Republic of Korea.