The Plight of North Korean Refugees

What do you do when your choice is between monsters ruling Pyongyang and Beijing?

An estimated 200,000 North Koreans have escaped to northeast China. Some of them are looking for food. Some of them are fleeing for their lives from prison camps or political persecution. Some of them are Christians who the Kim Jong-Il regime targets for the worst torture. Some of them are relatives of an arrested person, fleeing for their own safety because when one person is accused of a crime, all members of the family are arrested and imprisoned.

China, in support of the North Korean regime and in violation of the United Nations treaty on treatment of refugees, arrests the refugees and sends them back to be interrogated, put in camps, and even executed. China reportedly has special units to hunt down and arrest refugees and pays bounties to people who turn in refugees in hiding.

Women and children are increasingly the majority of refugees crossing the river into China. If they can locate a friend or relative's house, they have a chance at finding a safe haven. But if the ethnic Korean Chinese traffickers find them first, they are abducted and sold, either to men as informal wives or concubines or to karaoke clubs for prostitution. Their price and destination are determined by their age and appearance. China's one-child policy has resulted in a deficit of women from selective abortions, infanticide, and the selling off of girl babies. Kidnapping and trafficking have become common ways that Chinese men acquire women.