23rd December 2011

The Slave Brides of North Korea

The mass exodus of North Korean refugees into China began in 1995, at the outset of a three year period of widespread famine caused by the country’s stagnant agricultural output and miserable economic position. The regime did not seek outside assistance due to its policy of juche (self-reliance), which only worsened the crisis. United Nations estimates put the total number of deaths from starvation during the famine period at over two million people (roughly ten percent of the population). Though conditions have improved slightly, there is still a dire shortage of food and an ongoing economic crisis, causing the flow of North Koreans into China to remain steady. Of the tens of thousands of North Korean migrants hiding out in China, over sixty-five percent are women. This is in part due to deeply entrenched Confucian value system in which the most important job of the woman in the household is to maintain the family by providing meals, a role which grew increasingly difficult as the food shortages grew more severe. Additionally, North Korean women have far more opportunities to find employment as nannies or other domestic workers, but once inside a Chinese household they are completely cut off from the outside world whether they are working or forced into marriage. Crossing the border into China is a dangerous and difficult process, especially for women who are most likely already extremely malnourished and do not speak Chinese. Chinese traffickers pray on this vulnerability and often lie in wait at river crossings, markets, and train stations to pick the women up immediately after they cross the border. The practice is so common that over ninety percent of the women who enter China illegally from North Korea have been trafficked or exploited in some fashion. Often, the women are promised shelter and great employment opportunities in order to earn their trust but are immediately sold without their knowledge, most often into forced marriages.

The practice of forced marriage is a problem in China due to the country’s one child policy and general preference for male children causing a shortage of available women in the country, but it is also often a vicious prison sentence for North Korean female refugees. After being sold for between $120 and $1900, the women are essentially under the complete control of their husbands, who are often poor Chinese farmers considered undesirable to Chinese women. They are usually subject to routine physical and sexual abuse by their husbands. In order to prevent escape, abusive husbands chain or lock their North Korean wives up or even take away all of their clothing when they aren’t at home. Even worse are the constant beatings and rapes, which often leave the women bloody, bruised, and unable to walk for weeks. Not all North Korean women who are trafficked are forced into marriages-many of them are also made to work in the sex industry. They work as prostitutes in brothels disguised to look like dance or karaoke bars, where they serve customers alcohol and then are forced to sleep with them later that night. As a result, they often suffer from numerous venereal diseases and serious injuries at the hands of their customers. Even in the face of these inhumane conditions, North Korean women often accept their situations because they feel as if they have far better lives than they ever could have had in North Korea, where they may have starved or frozen to death. The matter is further complicated when the woman gives birth, at which point she may feel as if she has to stay in the marriage to raise the child. Being bound to their Chinese husbands also usually prevents the women from having to search for employment, a dangerous process that may result in capture and repatriation to North Korea by Chinese officials.