North Korean women trafficked to China – RFA Korean transcripts

RFA’s Korean service [홈페이지]] has recently had its 10-part series of programmes on the trafficking of North Korean women in China translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu, who provided the English Web team with an epic tale in English. We have only been able to showcase a fraction of this translation work in our regular Web story on the subject. More will appear soon on the Women in Their Own Words feature page. Meanwhile, here is an extract, and a link to Greg’s entire opus:

At markets in the Northern Hamgyong province, numerous guides are always available for the border crossing. If a North Korean man wishes to cross the river, he has to pay the guide a fee, together with collateral to guarantee the mandatory pledge to come back to North Korea, making a firm commitment to pay the guide a mutually agreed adequate amount of money upon his return. The guides declaredly pay ‘thoughtful consideration’ to women, allowing deferred payment, called “baeryo.” This deferred payment creates debt bondage, thus opening the path for victimization by human traffickers.

Ms. Kim Young Ae describes the circumstances surrounding her having been sold into bondage:

“There was nothing to eat, we didn’t even have any gruel left, so we had to appease our hunger with weeds we plucked from the fields, we boiled ragweed and ate it with a little corn flour…”

Ms. Kim Chaek-Shi of Northern Hamgyong Province was also sold into slavery under similar conditions:

“In 1997, we’d run out of rice, and people were starving all over. I almost lost my father to starvation, and my brother left our home. Our family was shattered and my mother was weak and ill in bed.”

…

There are barely any young women left in Chinese villages. The youngest women there are homemakers in their 40s. That is why men living in rural areas need a lot of money to find a bride, and most of those who have that money simply choose to move to the city. Most of the bachelors currently living in the rural areas are men in their 40s or 50s, poor and in many cases suffering from some physical or mental disability.

…

A native of Northern Hamgyong Province, Ms. Kang Sung-Mi is 35, and was sold one year ago by ethnic Korean residents in China. Her husband is 47, they work on the farm together, but he thinks of her as a worker, rather than a wife:

“My [Chinese] husband is 47 years old, has no particular work skills and is quite ill. I am not the only North Korean woman living in this area. As I was talking to some of the others, we came to realize that we had been sold into this kind of marriage. Last time my husband hit me, he even said: ‘You, do you have any idea how much I paid for you?’ Chinese men who live in poverty and have no professional skills cannot get married. That is why they buy North Korean brides for a very low price…”

Ms. Ho Kyung-Soon married a Chinese man 12 years older than her, 9 years ago:

“They buy us for very little money and then make us work as slaves on their farms. My husband makes me work all by myself, the entire summer…”

…and here is the full text:

 

 

 

“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

 

–Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Article 3

 

The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is a source country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation […]. Thousands of North Koreans, pushed by deteriorating conditions in the country, become economic migrants who are subjected to conditions of debt bondage, commercial sexual exploitation, and/or forced labor upon arrival in a destination country, most often the People’s Republic of China. The illegal status of North Koreans in other nations increases their vulnerability to trafficking schemes and sexual and physical abuse. North Korean women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriages with Chinese men […]. North Koreans forcibly returned from China are sent to labor prison camps operated by the government.

 

The Government of North Korea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making efforts to do so. The government does not recognize trafficking as a problem and imposes slave-like labor conditions on prisoners and repatriated North Koreans.

 

–Trafficking in Persons Report, Released by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State, June 3, 2005

 

There were no known laws specifically addressing the problem of trafficking in persons, and trafficking of women and young girls into and within China continued to be widely reported. Some women and girls were sold by their families or by kidnappers as wives or concubines to men in China; others fled of their own volition to escape starvation and deprivation. A network of smugglers reportedly facilitated this trafficking. According to defector reports, many victims of trafficking, unable to speak Chinese, were held as virtual prisoners, and some were forced to work as prostitutes.

 

–Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, March 8, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

Between Starvation and Desperation, Modern Day Bondage: Thousands of North Korean Women Bought and Sold in a Human Rights Vacuum

 

This ten-part feature presentation of the tragic reality of North Korean women who have fallen victim to ruthless human traffickers in China owes to the courageous work of Mr. Han Min (alias), a North Korean defector who entered China in December 2006 and spent three weeks at various locations near the border with North Korea, where he met North Korean trafficking victims, listened to their grievances and collected their compelling testimony. Through the victims’ voices and in their own words, Radio Free Asia shed light on who these women are and what torment made them trade life in North Korea for a human rights vacuum where they live as sub-human slaves, crushed by unutterable suffering.

 

The Victims

 

14 North Korean trafficking victims opened up their hearts to tell the account of a destitute life that goes beyond anyone’s imagination. The overwhelming majority of women trafficked in China come from North Korea, mostly from areas close to the Chinese border, such as Chagang, Northern Hamgyong or Yanggang Provinces. Some of them also came from Pyongyang and the Hwanghae Province. They lived an extremely hard life in North Korea, as itinerant peddlers or street children. As they and their families were trapped and starving, they were desperate to find an escape from the brutal reality of North Korea, and ended up being enticed by ruthless traffickers into crossing the Tumen or Yalu Rivers into China.

 

In September 1998, at age 17, Ms. Ho Kyung-Soon of Changjin decided to go do [TO]

China, lured by the prospect of making some money:

 

“Somebody in North Korea had told me that I could make money working in China, and all I wanted to do was to work there for a month and then return to live with my parents. Next thing I knew was that I was taken to a trafficking establishment in China.”

 

According to the victims, North Korean women between ages 17 and 40 are trafficked in China, and the men who buy them are Chinese nationals between 37 and 58.

 

Ms. Paek Sun-Joo was an 18 year old street child when she was sold to a 38 year old Chinese man, over two years ago:

 

“[The traffickers] would gather people wearing rags, appearing to be compassionate and pity them, giving them something to eat and telling them that in China they would be able to feed and clothe themselves adequately. It is easy to be tricked when you are starving, and somebody gives you some food, telling you that there will be plenty more for you if you go with them…”

 

In mainland China, many people have seen, or are aware of the existence of North Korean women sold by traffickers to farmers, hostess bars or karaoke parlors. Unfortunately, the world opinion is not yet fully aware of the staggering numbers of North Korean women living this Chinese nightmare.

 

The Root Causes

 

Most of the women who are currently in China escaped North Korea between 1995 and 2001. In many cases, women, rather than men, were the ones who had to carry the burden of sustaining their families, desperately striving to ensure their survival as the food crisis worsened.

 

Under those dire circumstances there was no hope, and even if one had tried to squeeze one more drop of sweat or blood out of their battered and starved bodies, hanging on to living in one’s North Korean hometown, while barely scraping a living, would have brought about the unavoidable outcome, the excruciatingly painful starving death of these women and their families. As rumors of broadly available well-paying jobs in China spread, desperation pushed these women to find the resolve to leave their hometowns in search of a better life.

 

The night before they left, some of these women laid a bowl of gruel by the sickbed of their ailing mothers, shedding bitter tears while awaiting the unavoidable separation. Others left an unsuspecting child in the arms of their mother-in-law, swallowing their tears as they promised to return within a couple of months. What all of them hoped for as they assumed all risks and crossed the Tumen River into China was to return within half a year with 5,000 Chinese yuan (about 650 US dollars).

 

At markets in the Northern Hamgyong province, numerous guides are always available for the border crossing. If a North Korean man wishes to cross the river, he has to pay the guide a fee, together with collateral to guarantee the mandatory pledge to come back to North Korea, making a firm commitment to pay the guide a mutually agreed adequate amount of money upon his return. The guides declaredly pay ‘thoughtful consideration’ to women, allowing deferred payment, called “baeryo.” This deferred payment creates debt bondage, thus opening the path for victimization by human traffickers.

 

Ms. Kim Young Ae describes the circumstances surrounding her having been sold into bondage:

 

“There was nothing to eat, we didn’t even have any gruel left, so we had to appease our hunger with weeds we plucked from the fields, we boiled ragweed and ate it with a little corn flour…”

 

Ms. Kim Chaek-Shi of Northern Hamgyong Province was also sold into slavery under similar conditions:

 

“In 1997, we’d run out of rice, and people were starving all over. I almost lost my father to starvation, and my brother left our home. Our family was shattered and my mother was weak and ill in bed.”

 

These women grew tired of gazing into the eyes of their loved ones, as they slowly starved to death, and chose instead to leave their homes and go to China, and even sacrifice their dignity to make a little money, hanging on to the slim hope that one day they would be able to return to their hometowns and families.

 

The Clients

 

There are barely any young women left in Chinese villages. The youngest women there are homemakers in their 40s. That is why men living in rural areas need a lot of money to find a bride, and most of those who have that money simply choose to move to the city. Most of the bachelors currently living in the rural areas are men in their 40s or 50s, poor and in many cases suffering from some physical or mental disability.

 

Until the mid-1990s, poor Chinese men living in rural areas couldn’t even dream of getting married. In the late 1990s, the Chinese rural bachelor came to realize that some of his neighbors were living with women who had come to China to flee the starvation and despair of North Korea. When North Korean women began crossing the Tumen to escape hunger, Chinese rural bachelors would just wait for them by the river, randomly making their pick.

 

It is harder for bachelors to find a North Korean woman now, and a market for the trafficking of North Korean women has emerged in China. Traffickers specialized in trading North Korean women have even set up “night markets,” where one can buy a bride for a few hundred dollars.

 

A native of Northern Hamgyong Province, Ms. Kang Sung-Mi is 35, and was sold one year ago by ethnic Korean residents in China. Her husband is 47, they work on the farm together, but he thinks of her as a worker, rather than a wife:

 

“My [Chinese] husband is 47 years old, has no particular work skills and is quite ill. I am not the only North Korean woman living in this area. As I was talking to some of the others, we came to realize that we had been sold into this kind of marriage. Last time my husband hit me, he even said: ‘You, do you have any idea how much I paid for you?’ Chinese men who live in poverty and have no professional skills cannot get married. That is why they buy North Korean brides for a very low price…”

 

Ms. Ho Kyung-Soon married a Chinese man 12 years older than her, 9 years ago:

 

“They buy us for very little money and then make us work as slaves on their farms. My husband makes me work all by myself, the entire summer…”

 

The traffickers who buy and sell North Korean women go around Chinese villages looking for bachelors who wish to purchase a bride. They sometimes tell the villagers who are already living with a North Korean woman that they could bring them a younger bride, and some of the men choose to sell their North Korean wives and buy younger ones instead. There is little doubt that there is no love or affection involved in such arrangements.

 

These women are workers, rather than “brides,” and they spend years in a row secluded inside their husbands’ household, completely isolated from the outside world. That is why many of them think of their new home in China as a prison, and just wait for an opportunity to escape.

 

In rare cases, such relationships prove to be successful, and the Chinese rural bachelors and their North Korean brides live as husband and wife. However, the North Korean women live in the ever-present peril of being arrested by Chinese law enforcement authorities for having illegally crossed the border. Some of them are apprehended even despite having lived in China for over a decade.

 

The Rings

 

Instances of North Korean women crossing the border into China just to become human trafficking victims are not accidental, but the result of premeditated and well-planned actions by traffickers acting not as individuals, but as members of well coordinated, organized criminal groups.

 

Nowadays, North Korean women are sold in China for a price tag between 2,000 yuan (260 US dollars) and 20,000 yuan (2,600 US dollars), depending on their age and looks. The traffickers are mostly Korean Chinese, and operate based on a well defined hierarchy and division of labor: there are “merchandise” scouts, distributors, brokers and transporters. The scouts identify vulnerable North Korean women who seem to be “marketable” and lure them into crossing the Chinese border, with promises of well-paying jobs and a better life. The distributors match the women with potential buyers, based on the women’s age and looks and the buyers’ purchasing power, and the brokers complete the sale. Once the deal has been closed, the transporters take the women to their final destination.

 

Ms. Chun Young-Hee has been sold by traffickers twice:

 

“The bride’s price tag depends on her age and looks. The youngest and best looking ones sell up to 20,000 yuan. A bride that’s worth only 3,000 yuan is tough to sell…”

 

According to the victims, trafficking of North Korean women began in China, but the trafficking rings have expanded to include North Korean citizens in their ranks. North Korean “scouts” approach seemingly vulnerable women overwhelmed by economic hardship, in particular ambulant peddlers and street children, at markets or train stations, introducing themselves as “border crossing guides” who could help them get well paying jobs in China. The victims thus deceived cross the Chinese border and go to what they mistakenly believe to be the guide’s family’s house, but end up in a “merchandise collection station” instead.

 

Ms. Hoh Kyung-Soon was sold by human traffickers nine years ago:

 

“At first, somebody in North Korea told me that I could make money in China, and all I intended to do was to work there for a month and then return to live with my mother and father, but then I just got dragged into an entirely different arrangement…”

 

The “merchandise scouts” who identify and recruit the victims are usually North Korean couples in their 30s or 40s, who live in the same town or neighborhood as the victims. The scouts are well connected in China, and some of them even have families there. They talk to their potential victims about sending them to their relatives’ house in China, but such a house always turns out to be a “merchandise collection station.” Once the women cross the doorstep, their freedom is entirely lost.

 

Ms. Jeong Soo-Ok was trapped and sold by trafficking rings after crossing the Yalu River from North Korea, in March 2004:

 

“A woman from our village, who said she’d been to China, told me that we could make some money there, so I followed her and crossed the Tumen River, and before I even knew it, I was taken to a man’s house. The woman from our village told me and others who had been brought there not to make a sound. They gave us a new change of clothes and loaded us into a car. We didn’t know who the owner of that house was, we didn’t know who the person accompanying us was, we had no idea what was happening… Even now, I don’t know if it was then that we were on our way to being sold. Thinking of the way they spoke Korean, I think those people were Korean Chinese…”

 

From “ merchandise collection stations” established in the border areas, the traffickers send the North Korean women brought over the Tumen or Yalu Rivers by the scouts to other Chinese provinces. Among the human traffickers, there are also North Korean itinerant vendors who regularly cross the border, and even North Korean women who were trafficked but have now joined the trafficking rings together with their Chinese husbands. The trafficking of North Korean women has extended, from areas near the Chinese and North Korean border, to all provinces northeast of Beijing.

 

The jargon that human traffickers use to name their North Korean victims is “pigs,” a degrading word that, unfortunately, effectively describes the treatment these women receive in China.

 

The Violence

 

Their life is a nightmare. Although they are 30 years old at most, their faces are dark and stained and their hands wrinkled like the hands of an older woman. In order to prevent the North Korean “bride” from fleeing the house turned prison, the husband’s relatives take turns to keep an eye on her.

 

While living with their Chinese husbands, the most painful aspect of their lives is the psychological and physical violence they’re subjected to. All of the eight North Korean women interviewed had been beaten by their husbands, and all of them knew that other North Korean women had to survive under similar circumstances. There are even women whose eyes and ears have been deformed by frequent beatings.

 

Ms. Hoh Kyung-Soon, trafficking victim:

 

“He hits me every day, for any trivial reason. It’s not that I want to live here, but I have nowhere else to go. I’ve tried escaping twice; I was caught and beaten senseless…”

 

Ms. Paek Sun-Joo has resided in China since age 18 and has bee beaten repeatedly after failed attempts to escape:

 

“I tried to run away, but I was caught and brought back. I was beaten and kicked so brutally that my bones broke, and my face was bruised all over…”

 

Even if they’re savagely beaten by their husbands, there are reasons why they have to keep silent. They cannot carelessly leave their homes or walk outside, as they might be caught. Even if they do leave their homes, they have nowhere to go. Although they are beaten and abused, since they are thoroughly secluded inside their husbands’ homes, word of their suffering never gets out, and there is no one out there to help. Still young, but always frail and scared, even when they are beaten and badly injured, no one takes them to a hospital, as they are told that they should not be too conspicuous, to avoid capture.

 

Ms. Kang Sun-Mi:

 

“For fear I might run away, they lock me up inside the house and that is how I spend countless days, without seeing the world outside…”

 

Ms. Lee Jeong-Ae has lived in China for six years, and Ms. Kang Sun-Mi for one year:

 

“For fear we might run away, they lock us up inside the house all day long, so we sometimes cannot see the outside world for many days in a row…”

 

The Humiliation

 

For most North Korean women trafficked in China, living with their Chinese husbands has very little to do with a normal marital relationship. Most of these men were not looking for a life partner from the very moment they purchased their “brides,” and many of these women have complained of having been beaten and subjected to sexual abuse.

 

Ms. Kim Young-Ae left North Korea in 1999:

 

“We are treated worse than animals. They take care of their animals better, as they’ll make money selling them some day, but North Korean women are locked up inside the house, sometimes forced to live with three widowers in the same household, constantly facing the aggression and contempt of those surrounding us. They would even take turns to sexually assault us.”

 

Husbands are mostly responsible for the sexual abuse, but there are also people who use the women’s fear of being reported to the authorities to sexually abuse them. Years ago, Ms. Jeong Soo-Ok was sold to a mentally impaired man. Dozens of her husband’s male relatives, including his brothers, living in the same neighborhood made sexual advances to her, when her husband was not home. If she rejected their advances they threatened to report her to the authorities, so her only option was to give in to their requests.

 

Fear governs these women’s lives. If they hear a sound outside while eating, they hide. If someone opens the door, the husband conceals every object that might look like a woman’s belonging.

 

In addition to fearing being reported to the authorities and subsequently deported, some of these women have brought their children or other family members with them from North Korea, and they constantly worry about their safety and livelihood.

 

Ms. Cho Sun-Ok, trafficking victim:

 

“I am always worried that the authorities may come and apprehend me. It wouldn’t be a problem if I were the only one to be caught, but I’m worried because I’m not sure if my child could come back alive if we were arrested and sent back to North Korea…”

 

The North Korean women constantly face the prejudice of the people living in their neighborhood. If there is a theft nearby, without any evidence, the Chinese neighbors always blame it on the North Korean women.

 

Most of the North Korean “brides” quietly live their lives secluded in houses that benevolent guests barely ever visit, devoid of any hint of love or romance, without the hope to ever run a household or have more children of their own.

 

Ms. Cho Sun-Ok, trafficking victim:

 

“I have no idea what love, or married life is… In North Korea, all I worried about was getting by and finding something to eat, and thus I didn’t know of men or dating, and then I came to this foreign land only to find this unbearable life…”

 

 

 

 

The Desperation

 

North Korean women sold as “brides” to Chinese villagers suffer tremendously due to domestic violence and sexual abuse, but seem unable to escape these circumstances. There are many reasons for their inability to escape. Language is a problem: even women who have lived in China for 8 years speak just broken Chinese. They spend their lives secluded inside their Chinese households, and they have very little contact with the outside world. They are given no money, not even the small change that they might need to take a bus. They are viewed as mere possessions that were purchased by their Chinese husbands, and opportunities to escape this situation are very rare.

 

Ms. Chun Young-Hee and Ms. Lee Jeong-Ae, trafficking victims:

 

“I ran away once, but came back after 3 days. I couldn’t speak the language, I had no money and there was nothing for me out there, except for the constant danger of being caught. Thus, I returned home and begged my husband for forgiveness, I pleaded with him to let me come back to this life of degradation and misery, for this is all I’ve got…”

 

For these women, not a day goes by without thinking of escaping. However, their own identity is more frightening than living with their Chinese husbands. As North Korean defectors, they may be arrested and deported to North Korea. Should they be returned, they will be punished as “traitors of the fatherland” in front of their hometown friends and neighbors. Compared to that, being beaten to death by the Chinese husband appears to be the lesser evil.

 

Ms. Lee Jeong-Ae and Ms. Kang Sun-Mi, trafficking victims:

 

“If life were better in North Korea, we’d go back. However, if we went back we’d be killed. For us, there is no way out…”

 

Ultimately, if the North Korean women brought their relatives or children with them from North Korea, it is practically impossible for them to leave their husbands.

 

There are isolated cases of North Korean women living a relatively peaceful married life in North Korea. However, although they bore children for their Chinese husbands and have fake Chinese IDs, they also live under the constant danger of being arrested and returned to North Korea.

 

The Damage

 

A lot of North Korean women live in border towns along the Chinese-North Korean border. Ms. Hoh Kyung-Soon and Lee Jeong-Ae:

 

“There are five other North Korean women in our neighborhood, and in other neighborhoods there are seven or more. Their lives seem to be even harder than ours; they are regularly beaten and abused by their husbands…”

 

There are at least one or two North Korean women in every Chinese village. When they arrest some of these women, even the police officers are sometimes surprised, as they had always assumed those women were Korean Chinese, and not North Korean “brides.”

 

Statistics by researchers or NGOs on the number of North Korean women trafficked in China vary greatly, but in 2003 the North Korean authorities declared that 1.5 million North Korean women in their 20s or 30s were missing. Based on the high numbers of North Korean women living in China, it is possible to assume that probably most of the missing women were trafficked in China.

 

Battered and sexually abused, constantly subjected to contempt and discrimination, the most vicious hardship these women have to face is being used and exploited under the threat of being reported to the authorities as illegal aliens.

 

Ms. Kim Young-Ae and Ms. Kang Sun-Mi:

 

“We live under constant disdain, we don’t have a country, grief overwhelms us at all times, and the best we can do is cry and pound our fists on the ground when no one is watching… Some look down on us because we came from a poor country, some pity us, but no one regards us as human beings…”

 

Recently, the North Korean women have begun to face a new threat. In order to secure their own safety, some of their own are granted immunity on condition that they collaborate with the Chinese authorities, reporting other North Korean women, who are subsequently arrested and sent back to North Korea. These newly recruited informants make the women live with even more uncertainty.

 

The Sex Industry

 

There are a lot of entertainment establishments connected to the sex industry in China, including hostess bars and hostess karaoke parlors, and North Korean women are often sold to these establishments.

 

Ms. Lee Jeong Ae of Harbin was sold as a “bride” in 2001 and then fled her husband, just to find herself working in a hostess karaoke parlor:

 

“Everybody had told me I could make good and easy money working in a karaoke bar, but the reality was quite different, I quickly came to realize that working there would have been more difficult than living with my husband. The women working there had to do exactly what they were asked to do, or else risk being beaten unconscious and I decided not to put up with that and left after a couple of days…”

 

Human traffickers sell good-looking North Korean women in their 20s and 30s to the managers of entertainment establishments, for about 5,000 yuan each (650 US dollars). The women have to sell themselves to pay them back, and on a daily basis they have to cater to five, sometimes over ten male customers. Within a month, they generally make about 3,000 yuan (390 US dollars), and after a couple of months they manage to repay their debt to traffickers, thus becoming “free agents.” According to managers of entertainment establishments, if there are no major incidents, most of these women choose to stay on even after they settle their debt.

 

All large scale hostess bars catering to tourists use North Korean women. There are also Chinese women working for these establishments, but North Korean women are the ones who are required to do the harshest and dangerous work, having to deal with particularly demanding or twisted customers. The reason is simple: they are North Korean[S], and no one will care if they are hurt or killed.

 

Ms. Jeong Soo-Ok of Harbin:

 

“I was sold to an entertainment establishment… I was forced to see perverse customers, who put their lit cigarettes on my abdomen, hand or breasts… The owner locked me up in a basement…”

 

Still, North Korean women prefer working for such entertainment establishments to wandering a foreign land with no money, acquaintances or knowledge of the local language. While working for these establishments, at least they make some money. If they work for bigger establishments, run by well-connected underworld figures, they are even granted protection from arrest and deportation by the Chinese authorities.

 

Ms. Yoon Mo is 27 years old and works in a hostess bar, having to drink 20 bottles of liquor a night while talking to countless customers. She gets off work at 2 am, always heavily intoxicated, and lives out of an abandoned warehouse. Although she has a child with her Korean Chinese husband, he is the one who sold her to traffickers for 3,000 yuan (390 US dollars) and coerced her to work in a hostess bar.

 

Her husband is a gambling and heavy drinking thug, but she stays with him because he provides minimal material support for her mother in North Korea. Working in a hostess bar also gives her protection from the authorities, as the owner is a well-connected man.

 

The Sorrow

 

Above all the abuse and mistreatment, the heaviest burden these women have to carry is their children. Some of them realized that they would be badly mistreated if they bore no children to their Chinese husbands, and decided to take that step, but found themselves even more deeply immersed in a harsh reality once their babies came into the world. Many of them ran away from home, but returned just because of their children.

 

Children born of a Chinese father and North Korean mother are Chinese citizens, and are added to their father’s family census. However, the mother may be arrested anytime, and deported as an illegal alien.

 

Although not wishing for much, these women do not seem to believe their wishes will ever come true. Most of them hope to escape arrest and deportation in China and go to South Korea or return to their hometowns one day. They all wish that things get better in North Korea and no one has to go through the same ordeal ever again:

 

“We wish to be free, and we want the world to be aware of our suffering… I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this… My dream is to have the means to make sure the parents waiting for me in our hometown have everything they need…I would like to go to North Korea one day, but my parents don’t even know if I am dead or alive… If I go back, life will be very hard, if I stay, life will be very hard, and probably the best thing would be to go to South Korea…”

 

Ms. Kim Young Ae, trafficking victim:

 

“I would like to see the situation in North Korea improve. I hope our people will never have to go through this again, being sold like worthless merchandise in China…”