Sex Trafficking of North

Korean Women
By Erica Guo
Pr. 2

North Korean Female Refugees

Among North Korean refugees, women are the most common.
There are many reasons behind this unusual gender imbalance. Demographically, North Korean
women are more likely to survive famine than men are. (Biologically women store more fat and
therefore are more able to survive.)
Most refugees are from the Northern-most provinces of North Korea.
Because most North Korean refugees escape to China, they often fall victim in an unfamiliar
country.
North Korean refugee women are vulnerable to torture and death if they are caught and deported.
However, staying silent also entails that they suffer exploitation and abuse in China.

Specifics of Sex Trafficking

2/3rds of North Korean refugees are women.
90% of North Korean women end up becoming victims of sex
trafficking.
Two types of traffickers are marriage brokers and pimps.
They target women and promise them better treatment.
Forced marriage is the most common type of sex trafficking for North
Korean women, although prostitution is also frequent.
Some women are able to escape from their forced marriages with the help of
underground human rights organizations, which have ties to churches in the
area.

Case #1: Ms. Kim of Heilongjiang Province

My mother died at the age of 46 in North Korea. I was married and had
two daughters. My husband used to beat me often. Finally I decided to
divorce him. When we were divorced, my husband took our older
daughter with him. I used to sell things at the market but life in 1998
was very difficult. I wanted to make some money and decided to go to
China. In January 1999, I crossed the Tumen River with three other
people and we all went to the house of ethnic Koreans nearby. This
household had an orchard. They let us work there for awhile, giving us
food and shelter. One day, three men, including one dressed in soldiers
uniform, came in a taxi and took me to Longjing where I was sold to an
ethnic Korean man. Later, when I realized this man planned to sell me
again, I ran away to Yanji.

Analyzing Case #1
Sadly, ethnic Koreans in China are often the ones that exploit North
Koreans, who share their cultural background.
Ethnic Koreans and Han Chinese traffickers often collaborate.
Both ethnic Koreans and Han Chinese are also customers.
Many ethnic Korean men want wives that share their backgrounds.
But forcing North Korean women into marriages is unethical.

Case #2
I came to China in 2004 in order to sell herbs and earn some money. I
was deceived by a North Korean woman who lived in my neighborhood
and handed me over to ethnic Korean people who sold me to my current
husband. I gave birth to a child in 2005. In March 2006, the head of the
womens association in our village came to our house, saying that the
hukou for the new-born baby should be sorted out. She said that during
the year while I was still pregnant, the local police paid visits to the
houses of North Korean women who had children and made a
registration certificate for them.

Analyzing Case #2
North Korean women often fear the Chinese police.
Men that they are forced to marry often threaten to turn them in if
they do not behave.
For many North Korean women, rape and abuse at the hands of their
husbands is better than being deported and facing torture back in
their old country.

UN Articles
ARTICLE 4 NO SLAVERY. No one shall be held in slavery or
servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their
forms.
This is related because forced marriages are an obvious form of
slavery. North Korean women often do not know of the transaction
and suffer sexual, physical, and mental abuse to abnormal levels.
Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
person.
Unfortunately, forced marriages and sexual trafficking undermines
North Korean womens three fundamental rights.

Why Should Americans Care?

Although it seems like forced marriages only happen in developing
countries, America also has a forced-marriage problem.
It may not be as big as the one in North Korea, but it is still there.
American laws dont deal with the complexity of forced marriages,
especially for girls.
Forced marriages can range from any age or demographic, ranging
from Prebysterian Christian to Iranian to Orthodox Judaism.
We should support American nonprofits like Unchained At Last, which
helps women esape forced marriages.

Sources
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/04/14/399337562/thou
sands-of-young-women-in-u-s-forced-into-marriage
http://www.northkoreanow.org/those-who-flee-the-bride-trafficking-of
-north-korean-refugee-women/
https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Lives_for_Sale.pdf