Trafficking from North Korea: Background

The United Nations estimates more than two million people died during the 1995-1998 famine in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea. The famine triggered an exodus of North Koreans into neighbouring China in search of food and work and the continuing food crisis means this flow of migrants has continued.

While some of those fleeing into China are refugees seeking to escape persecution from the Kim Jong-il Government, the majority of North Koreans crossing the border are women trying to survive and to earn money to send back to their families in North Korea.

Trafficking in women

In this context, traffickers seek out North Korean women to exploit at border areas, train stations and markets. Traffickers promise food, employment and shelter, but the women involved can find themselves forced to marry Chinese men or work in brothels and karaoke bars. While some North Koreans willingly agree to marriages in China, others are sold as brides for anywhere from 400-10,000 yuan (US$50-1,250). It is difficult for women in a forced marriage to escape, as they are isolated from any support. Marriages involving undocumented North Korean women are not legally binding and if discovered by the Chinese authorities, these women face deportation.

Forcible repatriation

Leaving North Korea without permission is a criminal offence that can carry the death penalty, so deportation carries very serious consequences. At the very least, those deported will spend between one and three months in detention in which they are likely to become malnourished, live in unsanitary conditions and be subjected to forced labour. There are also testimonies of beatings, torture, degrading treatment, and even forced abortions and infanticide from those who have escaped.

Refugees sur place

Estimates of the numbers of North Koreans living illegally in China vary considerably, but there are at least 50,000 in China, mainly in Jilin Province. Acknowledging the dangers of deporting irregular migrants back to North Korea, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea recognised in his 2005 report that North Koreans in China are refugees sur place, that is, those "who did not leave their country of origin for fear of persecution, but who fear persecution upon return".

Despite this, and the fact that China is a party to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which prohibits the forced return of refugees, the Chinese Government continues to deport North Koreans who do not have regular immigration status. China maintains that the North Koreans are economic migrants yet denies the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to screen the North Koreans in China.

Choon-ae's story

Kim Choon-ae and her 15-year-old daughter, Kim Hee-kyung, are from Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. In 1997 they left North Korea during the food crisis to find work in China.

"To get into China, we crossed the icy Tumen River in the middle of the night. During the first month, my daughter was abducted from the house where I worked as a nanny. She was sold for 4,000 yuan (US$480) and forced to marry a man in a remote rural village. To get her back, I had to pay 4,000 yuan.

After two years in China, four men came to our house at night and kidnapped us. They were planning to sell us as 'brides' to men in a mining town for 10,000 yuan ($1,200) each. My daughter was so scared that she couldn't eat anything. The neighbours, suspecting foul play, called the police. My daughter and I spent 40 days in a Chinese detention centre before being deported to North Korea.

In North Korea, we were stripped naked, checked for hidden money and sent to a labour camp on the border in Musan. My daughter was beaten and interrogated on whether we met any South Koreans or missionaries in China. All we had for food was porridge made from black, rotten flour and watery soup. We worked in the cabbage patches and carried heavy wood from the mountains. The guards threw stones at us if we weren't quick enough."

Kim Choon-ae escaped after four days, but Hee-kyung remained imprisoned for two and a half months. In 2003, Choon-ae left China for South Korea via Vietnam and Cambodia. Today she lives in Seoul with her three children. Choon-ae works in sales and heads an organisation that raises public awareness about North Korea. Her children are all working or studying.