North Koreans – victimized over and over

Political prisoner in North Korea

The world rightly is concerned about how the North Korean regime continues to threaten its neighbors with its nuclear capability and, more recently, missiles to deliver them.  However, it is no less urgent to consider how that same regime threatens the security of its own people.  It is all a piece of a North Korean government threatening people’s welfare.This week, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea released Lives for Sale, a comprehensive report on North Korean human trafficking victims.  It tells the sobering personal stories of 53 North Korean women trafficked into China.  In the words of a 54th victim at the National Press Club press conference on the report I took part in, these women were “sold like beasts” into Chinese families.

North Korean victims of human trafficking have the ultimate form of leverage held over their head by their exploiters – the threat of being turned in to Chinese police and immigration officials.  These Chinese officials will, as a matter of policy, ship them back to North Korea, where they will face violent punishment in North Korean gulags as “political traitors.”

This is a story of people potentially thrice victimized: victimized by their own government forcing them to run from North Korea, victimized when exploited abroad, and victimized in political prisons if deported home to North Korea.

I led the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.  The most recent annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report rates North Korea “Tier 3,” the reports worst rating – and China “Tier 2 Watch List” in large part because of this story.  When the 2009 report comes out in six weeks it is likely to make a similar assessment.  The surprise is not so much North Korea’s inhumanity, but China’s.

China’s human rights record is already poor on a number of grounds — constrained freedom of speech and assembly, brazenly tightened during the Olympics; repression of Tibetans and Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism; and religious persecution, to name a few.

As North Koreans flee their country for survival and freedom, the Chinese government fails a basic “humanity test” by refusing to treat them as refugees.  It violates its own commitments under international law to protect North Korean asylum seekers from the threat of violent persecution if returned to their country of origin, and has refused the UN High Commissioner for Refugees access to determine their status.

China’s own policies exacerbate the problem.  Women fleeing North Korea are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced marriage in the context of the intense demand for women as a result of China’s gender imbalance.  A one-child policy, or a slightly softened one-child policy, and a strong preference for boys cause many girls to never to see the light of day because of sex selection abortion.  This has created a high ratio of men to women throughout China.  The national average is 118 boys to every 100 girls, and in some regions (Guangdong, Hainan) a 130-100 ratio.  This dangerous gender imbalance has created an enabling environment for human trafficking.

North Korean women trafficked as “wives” into Chinese homes frequently find themselves trapped in situations of forced labor and sexual abuse.  But it is not just women who are exploited in China.  North Korean men are trafficked into various forms of forced labor, especially in farm work, the logging industry, and in mines.

While South Korea, like the United States, is by no means perfect on human trafficking, it has been given a Tier 1 ranking by the State Department TIP Report.  Although South Korea relies too heavily on NGO and foreign-run shelters, Seoul is actively expanding its network of shelters to provide quality aftercare for victims of trafficking.  Last year, The Ministry of Justice has also expanded Johns Schools educating some 15,000 male offenders who purchased commercial sex.  Above all, in South Korea, North Korean survivors of human trafficking are welcomed and treated properly as victims, unlike in China.

However, since North Koreans are legally citizens of the Republic of Korea (ROK), South Korea has a responsibility to defend the welfare of North Koreans in China.  China values its diplomatic relationship with the ROK, and South Korea should speak up on their brethen’s behalf.

Lives for Sale offers a sobering look inside 53 of the estimated 20,000-40,000 Korean refugees in China.  This report offers just a sampling, but an eye opening sampling it is.  Just think if China gave greater access to the international community to hear their stories.