They interviewed more than 45 survivors of sexual slavery and other eyewitnesses: North Korean male defectors in South Korea and men who formerly solicited North Korean women in brothels. Women victims, most of them between the ages of 12 and 29, are abducted and sold, or sometimes trafficked directly from North Korea at a time when more people could be attempting to leave. According to her estimates, 60 percent of North Korean women defectors in China are trafficked and nearly 50 percent are forced into prostitution.
Many of the women are sold more than once and are "habitually subjected to penetrative vaginal and anal rape, forced masturbation, and groping. North Korean women escaping to China for economic reasons are defenseless against abuse from brokers and underworld crime rings. China remains friendly with the Kim Jong Un regime, and local authorities do not protect North Koreans, or recognize them as refugees. Women sold into marriage with Chinese men often find themselves stuck after having children, but sexual assault is becoming increasingly common from the moment North Korean women cross into China.
According to a testimony from one refugee, male brokers beat and raped her when she couldn't give them any money or could not prove she had relatives in South Korea. Chinese police are aware of the sexual violence. One eyewitness told KFI girls as young as 14 were left in their blood-stained trousers at a detention center in northeast China. Trapped between two authoritarian countries, one that prevents its citizens from leaving and another that does not want refugees gathering at the border, North Korean women cannot seek help from the Chinese state.
Some take bribes, sell arrested women and girls, and frequent brothels. Another issue is the sheer scale of the illicit sex trade. According to Yoon, Chinese police have brought down 6, criminal groups since January , but that doesn't even "scratch the surface of the problem.
Michael Glendinning, chief executive of KFI and a North Korea human rights activist in London, said international pressure on the Chinese government should continue, although the pressure for improved refugee rights has a limited impact on the average victim on the ground. Glendinning, who works to raise awareness of North Korea human rights abuses in Britain, said rescue teams, often involving Christian activists, are the most effective in extracting refugees before criminals can access them.
