A woman from North Korea, sold into marriage in China, manages to escape to South Korea after 20 years of initial escape

28-03-2024

Pauliina Majasaari

Human Rights Researcher 

Global Human Rights Defence

Little did Chae-Ran know of the hardcomings she would face when stepping foot into Chinese territory, being subjected to forced marriage for about 20 years after which she luckily managed to escape to South Korea.

Chae-ran, a 35-year-old woman from North Korea, fled her home village 20 years ago, with hopes of finding a better life in China.[ii] She was taken to the northwestern part of China by a broker, and upon arrival she was given two options: either to take a job entertaining customers at a bar or marry a Chinese man.[iii] Chae-ran opted for marrying, and consequently she was introduced to the man, eight years older than her, who bought her.[iv] Eight weeks after being sold to the man, she became pregnant. With a failed attempt at miscarriage, she gave birth to a son, after which she committed herself to living in China for the rest of her life.[v] She worked a couple of different jobs while in China, however living in the shadows due to the lack of identity documents, as a refugee.[vi]  Finally, she built up the courage to make a pass at entering South Korea, with the help of brokers, and she received an apartment with the financial support of the government of South Korea.[vii] Chae-ran has built her new life in South Korea, having a job at a café as a barista and working to receive her driver’s license.

China is well known for a sex-ratio imbalance due to the one-child policy as well as the favoring of sons.[viii] Thereby, practices such as selling women into marriage and servitude for Chinese males are very common.[ix] Traffickers aim to fill the gap between men and women through selling women into forced marriages, as slaves in brothels, or as performers before webcams.[x] Many individuals from isolated rural areas of North Korea leave their home villages to find  freedom and a better life across the border in China.[xi] However, reality is often far from a place of freedom and better life circumstances. According to investigations, around tens of thousands of girls and women, some as young as 12-years-old, from North Korea are exploited while trying to receive access to China.[xii] The North Korean refugees are considered to be economic migrants by the Chinese government, and thereby they fear deportation on a daily basis, in addition to having no identification documents, access to services such as healthcare and jobs is nonexistent.[xiii]

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol), sets out the definition of human trafficking in article 3, according to which human trafficking entails the recruitment, harboring, transfer, transportation or receipt of a person under a threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, such as abusing the position of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation, such as forced labour or services, slavery or servitude.[xiv] The state parties have an obligation to provide protection to victims of human trafficking, by implementing measures that provide assistance in relation to medical and employment matters, among others.[xv] Moreover, the Palermo Protocol strongly suggests states to adopt legislative measures that allow trafficking victims to stay in their territory, either temporarily or permanently, taking into account factors of compassion for the victims.[xvi]  In addition, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (Supplementary Convention on Abolition of Slavery), defines certain forms of slavery which should be abolished within article 1, including a practice where a woman  is given to marriage upon payment of money amongst others, to any other person, without the possibility of refusal, namely forced marriage.[xvii] 

Drawing from the aforementioned definitions, Chae-Ran was exposed to human trafficking, as she was transferred from the joint border of North Korea and China to the northwestern region of China, by using coercion by means of abusing the vulnerable position she was in as a refugee in China, for the purpose of exploitation and servitude. Exploitation in the form of domestic servitude is present as she has no possibility to leave the premises of her ‘husband’s’ home as she holds no identification documents and her ‘husband’ refused to pay for receiving such documents, and she receives no pay for the work that she conducts on the farm.[xviii] As such, the Chinese government is not holding up its obligations in relation to protecting victims of human trafficking, as the victims are seen as economic refugees and, if caught, the Chinese officials will deport them back to North Korea, which is in contradiction with article 7 of the Palermo Protocol. Additionally, by withholding the issuance of identity documents, the victims of human trafficking do not have access to services that deal with medical and employment matters. Furthermore, in contradiction with article 1 of the Supplementary Convention on Abolition of Slavery, Chae-Ran was subjected to a forced marriage, as she was given to a Chinese man upon a payment by the human trafficker, for which she did not have a choice.[xix]

Hence, the Chinese government is urged by international actors and national associations to  protect North Korean women from human trafficking, to set up effective measures that would bring the perpetrators before courts as well as change its state practices so that the victims could legally stay in China and would not have to fear being deported back to North Korea, where they would face punishments for fleeing.[xx]

[i] Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo, ‘She fled North Korea but was sold to a man in China. Her second escape came nearly 20 years later.’ (CNN, 8 March 2024) <https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/08/asia/north-korean-refugees-trafficked-china-intl-hnk-dst/index.html> accessed 27 March 2024.

[ii]  ibid.

[iii] ibid.

[iv] ibid.

[v] ibid.

[vi] ibid.

[vii] ibid.

[viii] Yanzhe Zhang, Bowen Zou, Huai Zhang et al., ‘Empirical Research on Male Preference in China: A Result of Gender Imbalance in the Seventh Population Census’ (2022) 19 Int J Environ Res Public Health <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180325/> accessed 28 March 2024.

[ix] Mark Mohr and Robert M Hathaway, ‘A Struggle for survival: Trafficking of north Korean Women’ (Wilson Centre, 3 March 2008) <https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/struggle-for-survival-trafficking-north-korean-women> accessed 28 March 2024.

[x] Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo (n i).

[xi] ibid.

[xii] ibid.

[xiii] ibid.

[xiv] Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (adopted 15 November 2000, entered into force 29 September 2003) 2237 UNTS 319 (Palermo Protocol).

[xv] Palermo Protocol, article 6.

[xvi] Palermo Protocol, article 7.

[xvii] Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (adopted 7 September 1956, entered into force 30 April 1957) 266 UNTS 6 (Supplementary Convention on Abolition of Slavery), article 1 (c) (i)

[xviii] Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo (n i); ‘What is Modern Slavery’ (U.S. Department of Sate) <https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/> accessed 28 March 2024.

[xix] Jessie Yeung and Yoonjung Seo (n i).

[xx]  Jung Min-ho, ‘Beijing ‘actively enables’ trafficking of north Korean women, girls: rights groups’ (The Korea Times, 21 July 2023) <https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/03/103_355380.html> accessed 28 March 2024.