SEX smuggling gangs seize North Korean girls as young as 12 in China’s lawless “red zone,” human rights organization revealed today.
As many as half a million North Korean girls face systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage in Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
Many who try to escape Kim Jong-un’s iron grip are trafficked and sold on their way to freedom – but for those who end up in China, their fate may be even bleaker.
Sex trafficking gangs prey on the hundreds of thousands of women and girls fleeing the atrocities of the North Korean regime, according to the new report from Global Rights Compliance.
Once in China’s so-called brutal “red zone”, they are subjected to rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, pregnancy, forced labor and cybersex trafficking.
The human rights company compared the horrifying scenes to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale – where women are brutally controlled, dominated and sexually abused.
Sofia Evangelou, legal counsel for North Korea at Global Rights Compliance, told The Sun Online that desperate North Korean women “take every opportunity to flee by any means necessary.”
And she said they often know they will be exploited by depraved human trafficking and sold into the sex industry.
“We are shocked to learn that many North Korean women would rather be sexually exploited than stay in North Korea,” she said.
But that reflects their desperation.
“Knowing that this could happen, they prefer to be sold to brokers or people smugglers rather than remain in North Korea.
“Something for which they willingly accept the help of a broker. Some know that they may be exploited by human trafficking, but they are so desperate that they choose to trust the brokers.
“They hope that eventually they will have a better life.”
North Korean women are more likely to cross the border in search of better prospects for their families, as North Korean men are given state-assigned jobs – meaning they are closely monitored.
But sick organized crime groups in China are teaming up with brokers in North Korea to exploit the vulnerable women.
And gruesome new untold witness accounts detail how they face violent beatings and forced abortions by the ruthless gangs operating in China.
Terrified women are paraded in the street and beaten in front of crowds of men — and have been sold for just a few hundred dollars, the human rights firm said.
Survivors said Chinese guards know about organized criminals’ operations and essentially do nothing about it
Sofia Evangelilou
One survivor recounted being marched through villages in northern China for three days before her broker found a man paying less than $3,000.
Another North Korean woman said she was sold to a Chinese man in Yanbian, who beat her repeatedly.
“We lived together for a year and couldn’t have a child, so he hit me,” she said.
“He kicked me. He kicked my head a lot. I now have depression as a result of that.”
It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of North Korean women refugees in China are trafficked into the sex industry – a $105 million industry.
In 2019, a Korea Future Initiative report found that the vast majority of victims are women and girls between the ages of 12 and 29.
The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights has documented more than 82,000 cases of horrific human rights violations.
China’s historic one-child policy has fueled the multibillion-dollar sex slave industry by creating a massive gender imbalance in the country and making it difficult for Chinese men to get married.
“Essentially, North Korean women and girls are a perfect way to find women for Chinese men,” Evangelou said.
Global Rights Compliance said the women are often sold to “very lonely men” and held against their will in the house they sold into.
Diseased organized crime groups in China are teaming up with brokers across the border in North Korea to exploit the fleeing women and girls.
Bribes to border guards
And Chinese guards are reportedly complicit in the horror crimes.
Evangelou said: “Survivors said that Chinese guards either know about the operations of organized criminals and essentially do nothing about it, or there have been cases where they have facilitated the criminal groups in various ways.
“They may be able to receive bribes or facilitate movements of groups so they can operate across the region and exploit the women.”
According to Global Rights Compliance, Chinese officials rarely conduct inspections in the “red zone”.
And they said the complicity of Chinese officials, and sometimes even the police, makes it nearly impossible to hold criminals accountable.
Evangelou said: “A black hole of information currently exists around China’s red zone, which means that many more North Korean women and girls are falling victim to China’s sex slave industry.
“The current situation exposes North Korean women and girls to the stark reality of either being sold into a life of sexual and mental abuse, slavery, forced labor or achieving freedom.
“The pandemic of international silence surrounding human rights abuses against North Korean women and girls must end.
“The illegal sexual slavery of women and girls will not stop until a concerted international effort is mobilized.
“The international community can no longer turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against women and children, who flee for their lives and – in too many cases – those of their unborn children.”
Women and girls hiding in the “red zone” live in constant fear of being sent back to North Korea – because locals have great financial incentives to report defectors.
Defectors who are pushed back are branded “traitors” and searched during interrogations, time behind bars, or forced labor camps.
And some defectors automatically get the death penalty.
Many North Korean women would rather be sexually exploited than stay in North Korea
Sofia Evangelilou
A woman, whose identity has been protected, was sent to a police camp after being returned to North Korea, where she was brutally raped by a security officer.
She said she was ordered to follow the officer into a kitchen before he told her to take her clothes off and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said she felt “embarrassed”.
In another case, a pregnant woman was brought back to North Korea and hid her pregnancy from prison guards in a forced labor camp.
Tragically, she and her unborn baby drowned after a guard ordered her to go into a river to collect stones.
According to the United States Department of StateUp to 120,000 people are currently held in detention camps in North Korea, forced to work for hours under harsh conditions.
China treats North Koreans as illegal economic migrants – essentially pushing criminal gangs to operate without any implications.
It means North Korean women cannot seek help from the authorities because they know they will be forcibly repatriated, leaving them “in hiding” in China.
“This exposes women to a plethora of serious human rights abuses because this is their hostile policy from China that prevents women from seeking refuge,” Evangelou said.
If they manage to escape, they will follow to Southeast Asia and try to reach the safe haven of South Korea, she said.
When the UN Human Rights Council met this week, the special rapporteur said that women and girls in North Korea are a top priority.
Global Rights Compliance worked with North Korean civil society organizations to gather evidence of the horrific human rights violations.
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