the problem IN NORTH KOREA
An estimated 1 to 3 million people starved to death in the North Korean famine which spanned from 1995 to 1998. According to experts, this loss of life accounted for the deaths of up to 10 percent of North Korea’s population.
200,000 North Korean refugees are estimated survive in hiding in China currently
As of 2017, it was estimated that over 1,000 North Koreans escape out of the country every year.
Even now, North Koreans are among the poorest people in the world, they are the least economically free. For over a decade, Christians in North Korea have been the most persecuted in the world. The North Korean government systematically denies its citizens basic civil, religious, and political rights.
North Koreans are strictly tracked by their government. Men, especially, are checked for their attendance to work. To leave the country is to an act of treason. The punishment for such a crime is at minimum a sentence of seven years in a North Korean concentration camp or even execution.
North Korean prison camps are renowned for their brutality in physical and psychological abuse. These camps were at their height estimated to detain up to 200,000 North Korean inmates who are systematically starved, tortured, and worked to death. This number is now estimated to be between 80,000 and 120,000.
It is almost impossible for North Korean refugees to flee south on the Korean Peninsula, where North Korea borders South Korea. Between the two Koreas is the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world since the end of the Korean War.
The most viable direction for North Koreans to flee is north, into China.
As flooding and subsequent infrastructural damages ravaged the North Korean people in 2007, South Korean officials noted the largest influx of North Korean refugees in a 10-year period. Over 2,800 North Korean defectors were accepted into South Korea in 2008 and over 2,900 in 2009. Realizing that this was only a fraction of the total population of the North Korean refugees who escaped from North Korea this period of time, it is most likely that even more North Koreans defectors sought refuge in China following the natural disasters in 2007.
the problem IN CHINA
About 300,000 North Koreans fled to China in the course of the 3-year Great North Korean Famine.
As a member of the United Nations (UN), China must abide by UN conventions regarding refugees… but DO NOT. Instead, China actively seeks out North Korean refugees to return to North Korea
North Korean refugees in China live with NO human rights. There are no laws protecting North Koreans from exploitation, trafficking, or even murder. Because of this, the abuse of North Koreans is rampant throughout China.
Chinese authorities actively search for North Korean refugees in regions near the country’s border with North Korea. Local police offer monetary rewards to those who are willing to report the whereabouts of North Korean refugees. North Korean refugees, once arrested and detained, are returned to North Korea to face prosecution as traitors to the state.
North Korean refugees in China also have no human rights. There are no laws protecting North Koreans from exploitation, trafficking, or even murder. Because of this, the abuse of North Koreans is rampant throughout China.
North Korean Refugee Trafficking
The conditions in North Korea and in China have created a perfect storm for human trafficking in the unprotected North Korean refugee population.
With an expansive gender disparity created in the aftermath of the One-Child Policy, China estimates that, by the year 2020, there will be 30 to 40 million more boys than girls. In some of China’s most populated regions, the gender ratio is almost three to one.
Approximately 70 percent of North Korean refugees are women. According to a 2008 United States Congressional report, in this population of North Korean refugee women, 80 percent have been trafficked - bought and sold - in a Chinese black market for brides.
It is also worthy to note that it is not the wealthy who need to purchase North Korean wives from the black market. It is those with the lowest socio-economic standing who cannot find prospective brides. Many of the women in Crossing Borders’ network are married to Chinese men who are physically or mentally impaired. Most live in abject poverty as laborers or farmers.
CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND
The UNHCR estimates that there are between 20,000 to 30,000 children who are born into the forced marriages of North Korean refugees and Chinese husbands. Their citizenship status can be unclear as their mothers are considered illegal economic migrants and refused refugee status.
In our Orphan Care network, 33 percent of the children in our care have mothers who were repatriated to North Korea. From our surveys administered in 2014, we have gathered that another 30 percent of our children’s mothers have disappeared, their status and location now unknown.
The average length of time the children in our care have been separated from their mothers is 12.4 years, as of February 2018.
The children in our organization’s protection are those who are left in the care of fathers who are ill-equipped and often unable to care for them. In a number of cases, fathers do not want their half North Korean children. Even in situations where fathers want to remain present in their children’s lives, they are unable to provide the necessary care their children need.
