North Korean Refugee Women in China: Causes of Flows and Current Situation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The flux of North Korean refugees into China has continued on. At least 70% of North Korean defectors are presumed to be female, and most of them become victims of human trafficking as well as forced labor. A considerable number of North Korean women are reportedly working as sex slaves in Chinese cities under horrible situations.
The far most important push factor of the refugee flux is the chronic famine in North Korea. The starvation in North Korea has become prominent primarily due to a mixture of several major external elements. Though these external factors might be counted as the root of the domestic economic crisis, improper policy responses to the crisis and state failure in a broader sense could be claimed as the structural origin of the North Korean famine. In other words, the North Korean famine is a system-induced catastrophe mainly caused by its political inadequacy or state failure. North Korea exhibits deteriorating economic, social, and political infrastructure to supply basic public goods and human security to its population, especially women. The prominent push factor might be women’s relative weakness in terms of social and economic status in North Korea, a state that combines a mixture of East Asian patriarchy and muscular militarism.
There are pull factors, as well, such as the demand of the sex industry market in boosting Chinese economy and demographical change in Chinese rural society. There is another parameter, like a newly established illegal smuggling ring between Chinese and North Korean border guards after the collapse of North Korean state-run economy.
The essential solution to the North Korean refugee women issue in China might be related to a peaceful transition of North Korean failed state system. In the meantime, the international support network for North Korean refugees in China needs to throw more efforts into protecting women from victimization of human trafficking and sex slavery. Facilitating self-help forms of lifeline and human contacts among the North Korean refugee community, especially between settlers (or survivors) in other host countries and asylum-seekers in China, could help them gain information.

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