China: Korean women forced into sex slavery

Off Our Backs, Mar/Apr 2004 by Douglas, Carol Anne, Musumeci, Rena, Bunyan, Chris, Young, Angie

At least 100,000 women refugees have fled from North Korea to China in recent years to escape hunger; most of them are forced into sexual slavery. According to human rights groups quoted in a recent article in The Washington Post, North Korean men in China can find jobs as laborers, but the vast majority of women refugees are sold into slavery. North Koreans have no rights as refugees in China. If the government finds them, they will be sent back to their country of origin, where they will be put in camps because they ran away.

The main targets of sexual traffickers are single women, but even married women traveling with their husbands are sometimes forced into sexual slavery, with or without their husband's consent, the report said.

The article quoted a North Korean woman who had managed to get from China to South Korea. "I was helpless, I had no money, I didn't speak Chinese, and I had my daughter to support. If you are a North Korean woman crossing the border, it's almost impossible to survive without being abused or sold. It happens to almost all of us, because they know we are vulnerable."

-info from The Washington Post, 3/3