One of the biggest problems facing North Korean women and women defectors is human trafficking out of North Korea and into China. Studies from 2005 estimate that 80-90% North Korean women who defected into China are suspected to be human trafficking victims and have experienced some sort of sexual exploitation. Many women who are hoping to escape North Korea to provide for their families by working aboard are caught in this system and are faced with forced marriages, sexual abuse, and prostitution. Women who are caught within this system are currently suffering extreme human right violations and are without the proper capabilities to receive the necessary resources to leave their situations.
The current state of Chinese and North Korean society has left a high demand for women to be transported into China, a situation that traffickers are exploiting. China's sex ratio (amount of male births to female births) has left society with an abundance of men unable to find wives. In 2002, China's sex ratio was 116 male births per 100 female births, while the world's sex ratio was 108 male births per 100 female births. Thus, while the demand for women to enter into marriage remains constant, more and more men are finding themselves unable to find wives. As more and more young women from small towns and villages leave their homes and migrate to large cities for educational and career aspirations, an increasing number of men at an marriageable age who have stayed behind are unable to find a wife and start a family. This is the prime market for human traffickers. North Korean women have been trafficked into China to become wives to single men in these small towns. A 2003 report from the United Nations on trafficking of women and forced prostitution found that 30-90% of marriages in some rural villages in China consisted of brides who fell victim to human trafficking. In these towns, victims are often subject to sexual, verbal, and physical abuse. Additionally, as women enter China and are transferred from trafficker to trafficker, many are also forced to work as prostitutes.
The circumstances created by the North Korean government enables human trafficking across the border to be so prevalent. Firstly, North Korea's government inability to provide for its citizens has a direct effect on the growing number of women who engage with human traffickers. Due to the extreme conditions as result of the great famine in the 1990s, many families required supplements of fundamental resources, mainly food, in order to survive. A responsibility like this is usually placed on the government and they have failed to act appropriately. While the South Korean government and many non-profit organizations attempted to provide material aid, the North Korean government would oftentimes refuse to accept such offers of aid. In some of the cases where the government has accepted aid, no evidence has been provided to suggest that aid reached those in need. These circumstances pushed many women into attempting to find work outside of the country. Oftentimes this search left many women unknowing interacting with human traffickers tasked with tricking women into believing they can provide them with honest work beyond borders. Once women are aware of the realities of the situation that they were tricked into, they are already deep within China's borders and it is too late.
Secondly, corruption throughout all levels of the North Korean government allows this practice to continue. Crossing the border that connects China and North Korea is a difficult task. Under Kim Jong-Un's authority, this border has become heavily surveilled by North Korean soldiers. While this escape route is more feasible than crossing the DMZ in the south, an increasing number of government implemented previsions, such as more border agents and fences, has deterred potential defectors. Additionally, the Yalu and Tumen rivers act as a separator between the two nations, but not much is known about its true depth, so many who try to cross it drown. In order to cross the border somewhat safely, human traffickers have to bribe border agents to not report their activities. Border agents turn a blind eye to the activities of human traffickers for payment as another way to provide for their families. If the North Korean government were able to properly pay their employees and administer to them enough resources to provide for their families, more border agents would report such actions and it would be increasingly harder for human traffickers to pull women out of the country.
The Chinese government has also done very little to stop this situation and often directly hinders victim's ability to escape these unimaginable circumstances. The Chinese government has a very close relationship with the DPRK. Experts argue that the only way the North Korean government has been able to stay afloat is due to the Chinese government continuing trade relations with the nation. Due to this, the Chinese government often sides with the North Korean government when establishing policy on defectors who enter China. With the implementation of the 1986 bilateral border protocol between China and North Korea, the Chinese government has implemented a policy of deporting any known North Koreans who are illegally residing, including asylum seekers, within its borders. Once deported back to North Korea, those who were once defectors are faced with extremely harsh punishments including prison and work camp sentences. Threatening to report the defector to local authorities is often used as a way to coerce victims into staying within their exploitative circumstances. This is also why it can be extremely hard to understand the severity of the situation. If any polling were to happen within China that required human trafficking victims to report on their situation, there is a wide range of reasons as to why they fear relaying any information.
While a vast majority of women defectors are often tricked into marriages or becoming prostitutes, some women are so desperate to escape that these options in China are seen as a more attractive than staying within their home nation. In a 2014 study of the stories of North Korean women who have migrated over borders, Dr. Eunyoung Kim features Jini Choi, a North Korean poet, as a defector who shares this opinion. Jini Choi in quoted with saying the following in 2006:
I was sold into marriages three times and severely beaten and sexually abused almost every night while I lived with the third husband in China. As I have experienced those beatings, I know the realities of trafficking in North Korean women. Nonetheless, I personally hope that more and more North Korean women can cross the border to China and then come to safe third countries, even through... human trafficking and providing sex. Don't think that we are sexually immoral. If you have never starved more than three days in your life and seen your family die because of hunger in front of your eyes, you do not have a right to judge us
One can recognize that the society that North Korean women are placed in once in China has the possibility of being more attractive than the one they had escaped. However, the reality is that most women are tricked into becoming prostitutes without the capabilities to leave. Many women are robbed of their choice and freedom to decide whether they believe a life in China with these circumstances will be better than their current life in North Korea.
Overall, the situation created by the North Korean and Chinese government has resulted in a mass influx of cross border human trafficking. In order to prevent the further exploitation and abuse of North Korean women searching for better lives, the North Korean government must first provide their citizens with the proper resources so that they do not feel that defecting is their only option of survival. Additionally, the Chinese government must end their practice of automatic deportation so that victims are able to safely find refuge within China and more trafficked individuals are able to speak up about the human rights abuses they face on a daily basis.
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