Hundreds of thousands of North Korean girls face systematic rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage in the provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin, known as China’s “Red Zone” border region.
As they flee the repression in their home country, the North Korean women face systematic rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, pregnancy, forced labor, and cybersex trafficking, in what has been compared to the “real-life Handmaid’s Tale.”
Many who try to flee Kim Jong-un’s iron-fist grip are trafficked and sold on the road to freedom, but for those who end up in China, their fate can be even bleaker.
According to a report by international human rights organizations, Global Rights Compliance and Seoul-based North Korean human rights organizations, sex trafficking gangs prey on the hundreds of thousands of women and girls fleeing from the atrocities of the North Korean regime.
The NKDB has recorded more than 82,000 cases of violations. The Global Rights Compliance reported that many North Korean women prefer to be sexually exploited rather than remain in North Korea.
Women and girls living in the Red Zone are in constant fear of forced repatriation. Defectors who are forcibly repatriated to North Korea are labeled “traitors” and subjected to invasive strip searches during interrogations and imprisoned, often without trial.
Some defectors are issued an automatic death sentence on re-entry to North Korea.
The international human rights organization, Global Rights Compliance, and North Korean human rights organizations in Seoul have called on the international community to take immediate action to recognize these atrocities.
COVID lockdowns, closed borders, and information blackouts in China and North Korea have created a “black hole” of information around the defectors.
The business of trafficking North Korean women is lucrative, reportedly generating more than USD 105 mln per year for the Chinese and North Korean organized crime networks.
The 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is underway in Geneva, where the Special Rapporteur has identified women and girls in North Korea as the first priority.
tvpworld.com