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N. Korean Women Find Life of Abuse Waiting in China
By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, March 3, 2004
SEOUL -- On Dec. 25, 2000, a young North Korean woman and her 5-year-old
daughter approached the banks of the frozen Tumen River separating North
Korea and China. The woman clutched her terrified daughter's hand and
hustled across the frozen river, ducking armed patrols until the pair
cleared the border.
Once in China, they joined a growing tide of refugees fleeing lives of
hunger and brutality in North Korea. But along with tens of thousands
of other female North Korean refugees, the 29-year-old woman quickly discovered
that some nightmares don't go away -- they merely change dimensions.
She recounted how, with few provisions, she made her way to a safe house
described by a friend in North Korea. Rather than offering her shelter,
however, the owners of the house presented her to a middle-age Chinese
farmer for inspection. He gave her the once-over, examining her face and
slim body before going off into a corner to haggle over a price for her
as a concubine. The woman, who had already suffered years of beatings
by her husband, said she fled in panic, seeking refuge in the home of
a nearby Chinese couple. They later sold her into a humiliating and violent
life inside a hostess bar, where men pay to be entertained by women.
"I was helpless; I had no money, I didn't speak Chinese, and I had
my daughter to support," said Young, who agreed to an interview in
Seoul on condition that only her first name be used. "If you are
a North Korean woman crossing the border, it's almost impossible to survive
without being abused or sold. It happens to almost all of us, because
they know we are vulnerable."
Running from harsh conditions under the totalitarian government in Pyongyang,
an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 North Korean refugees are now living illegally
in China, roughly half of them women, according to missionary and other
religious-oriented groups working in the area. While many North Korean
men end up finding jobs as cheap laborers, South Korean government officials
and human rights groups say the vast majority of the North Korean women
are sold into temporary or long-term service as sexual slaves or suffer
other kinds of sexual or physical abuse, often inside entertainment clubs.
While female refugees across the world remain at high risk of abuse or
exploitation, the North Korean women are extraordinarily vulnerable, aid
groups say. The Chinese government has refused to grant the North Koreans
official status as refugees, largely based on Beijing's traditional ties
to Pyongyang, as well as fears that such a designation would dramatically
boost the already steady influx over the border.
Without organized refugee camps or access to assistance from such international
bodies as the United Nations, the North Korean women have no safety net.
Though the primary targets are single women or unaccompanied wives, even
married female refugees traveling with their husbands are occasionally
forced into sexual servitude -- either with or without their spouse's
consent, aid groups and the refugees say.
"This is an extraordinarily serious problem; the fact is that most
of the North Korean women fleeing for food or to eke out some kind of
survival for their families are falling prey to sexual traffickers,"
said Tim Peters, founder of Helping Hands Korea, a Christian nonprofit
organization in Seoul that aids North Korea refugees in China without
Beijing's permission or cooperation. "What is most despicable is
that this situation is going on but is being virtually ignored."
The North Korean women in China who ultimately make it to South Korea
-- most frequently with the help of missionary groups -- represent a fortunate
but small minority. Last year, South Korea resettled only 1,281 North
Koreans, although that number was up significantly from the 583 taken
in during 2001. Once here, the women are offered psychological counseling
as they are processed and prepared for new lives in the South, said Unification
Minister Jeong Se Hyun.
Given that the abuses occur in China, Jeong said, doing more for them
would require Beijing first to reconsider their status. "The answer
lies in the position of the Chinese government," Jeong said. "If
their status changes, we can do more to protect their human rights."
Young was forced to work in a karaoke bar in the Chinese border region,
pouring drinks for groups of men in private rooms. "They knew I was
North Korean, so they would sometimes taunt me, holding up their cellular
phones to my face, threatening to call the authorities and report me if
I didn't do as they said," she said, her whole body shaking as she
broke down in tears. "They knew what would happen to me if I was
sent back to North Korea. They knew."
During the interview in Seoul, where she arrived in November after a daring
dash into the South Korean Consulate in Beijing, her tears rushed unabated
as she recounted her ordeal -- which hasn't ended. A family in China is
still demanding $8,000 in exchange for the release of her daughter, who
is now 9. Young left her daughter with them because if her attempt to
enter the consulate failed, Young would have been sent back to North Korea.
Lee, 24, another North Korean refugee who agreed to speak on condition
that only her surname be used, was deported to North Korea in 1998 after
being caught by Chinese authorities on the border. "I was sent to
a prison camp and raped daily," she said bluntly, her hardened face
virtually expressionless. "Every day, the same guard raped me. I
still see his face. No matter how I try, I cannot forget it. Many of the
women died of the abuse. The guards would then take their used clothes
and barter them in town."
Lee said she escaped from the camp after a year and fled back into China.
There, she said, she was caught again -- this time by Chinese gangsters
who sold her into a brutal life of prostitution. She escaped with the
help of Christian missionaries who helped bring her to South Korea in
December.
Young said that she would try to resist men's advances, which typically
resulted in violence. "They grabbed me and turned me upside down
by my ankles. They threw beer bottles at me and hit me. I would run away.
But I would always end up caught and brought to another bar."
She fled North Korea, she said, because her husband, a coal miner, severely
beat her and her daughter as their family life deteriorated under the
isolated country's hardened poverty. Their meal rations from the government
grew steadily scarcer. "I did it for my daughter," Young said
of her flight, "and now she is not here with me."
Last year, Young said, she began planning for her dash to the South Korean
Consulate in Beijing. In September, she forced her way into the back entrance
of the compound. Young is in phone contact with her daughter, though the
family she trusted to safeguard her -- aware that the South Korean government
provides cash payments to resettling refugees -- is now demanding $8,000
for her release.
The Chinese family, she said, doesn't understand that the stipends are
paid in monthly installments, and Young, still in the process of being
resettled, has yet to find a job. "My daughter is all I can think
about," she said. "I will save her from a life like mine. That's
why I left North Korea in the first place."
Special correspondent Joohee Cho contributed to this report.
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