By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – A report released by South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission detailed the plight of female North Korean refugees.  The report was compiled based on interviews and surveys of 274 defectors.

The report specifically discussed how female North Korean defectors suffer sexual violence and are trafficked to China or other countries. 

According to the study, many are abused in refugee camps in China, and about 20% of the female refugees bribed North Korean border guards with money or sex to cross the North Korea-China border.

One defector who lives in hiding in China said, “We were slaves, or worse than that, treated like animals.” 

Others described their lives in Southeast Asia where they lived under horrid conditions in detentions camps, for example, not being able to use the toilets after dark or “buying” a space where they can sit.

South Korea is also being criticized for its handling of North Korean defectors.  The chief criticism is that the South Korea’s policy on defectors is too fragmentary and does not provide substantive aid.

Although vocational training is offered, the programs center on low-paying work, such as cooking and nursing, despite the fact that many of the defectors have received higher education in North Korea. 

The South Korean government also has one-size-fits-all training programs which disregard personal difference of refugees. 

In addition, female defectors also suffer abuse from their South Korean husbands.  This is a matter that needs to be resolved as soon as possible considering that these women already suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the horrible experiences they endured in order to escape, living with constant fear of repatriation or because of a sense of guilt they feel towards family they left behind in North Korea.

More than 16,000 North Koreans have crossed into South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.  The annual number of defectors is on the rise, and the South Korean Unification Ministry expects the number to top 20,000 in 2010.

Park, Sun-seong, the professor responsible for this study, said, “By revealing the scars left to the North Korean women who fled their country, we hope to shed light on their human rights issues….”
For more information, please see:

AFP – N.Korea women refugees suffer abuse: watchdog – 22 February 2010

The Korean Times – Female Defectors’ Plights – 23 February 2010

Yonhap News – Human rights abuses on NK defector women abound: report – 22 February 2010