A Living Hell for Female North Korean Soldiers: Sexual Abuse and Abortions Without Anesthesia

To this day, North Korean women are subject to disadvantages in education and employment opportunities, with little protection against sexual assault and violence at work and home respectively, along with concerns of rape and mistreatment in detention. According to a report published by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2017, North Korea is far from providing adequate victim protection and support measures in this regard. For example, the 2012 revision of the Criminal Code lowered the penalties for some forms of rape, including rape of children, rape by a work supervisor and repeated rape. Since the penalty for rape is incommensurate with the crime per se, perpetrators are often left unpunished.

Unlike South Korea, which only requires male citizens between the age of 18 and 28 to perform compulsory military service, North Korea requires all North Korean women to serve a total of seven years in the military from the time they graduate school until the age of 23. Interestingly, it has been reported that thousands of young women were motivated to join the military by the thought of having a guaranteed meal each day, particularly following the famine in the 1990s.  

As a traditionally male-dominated society, female soldiers in North Korea are subjected to repeated abuse, induced malnutrition, cruel punishment, sexual harassment and sexual assault.  A former soldier, Jennifer Kim, estimated that 70 percent of female North Korean soldiers had been victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment in an interview conducted by The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. As a victim herself, Kim testified that female soldiers had to endure "unspeakable” torture and collective punishments in the army. She described several occasions where women were forced to dip their hands in freezing water before being hung from an iron bar which froze on to their palms, causing the flesh to tear off when released. Kim also noted that women in the army had to reuse soggy footwraps and gauze used for dressing wounds as sanitry pads and recalled that during her four years of military service, she had only ever used four sanitary pads.  

When Kim was 23 years old, a senior advisor called her to his office and she immediately knew what was going to happen – she was sexually assaulted that very day. Kim explained that she had no choice but to accept her fate. Had she refused his demands, she would not have been able to become a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea. “If I return to society without being able to join the party, I’m perceived as a problem child and I will be stigmatized for the rest of my life...[that] means you won’t be able to get a good job and it will be a problem when you try to marry. What could I have chosen?” Despite surviving on meager rations of three to four spoonfuls of corn a day and being so malnourished that her period only came once every four to six months, Kim became pregnant with her abuser’s child. When she informed him of her early signs of pregnancy, he simply ordered her to visit the military medical office the same night, where a military surgeon performed an abortion on her without anesthesia. Kim struggled to describe the pain she had been through and stated that “[because] of that experience, not only do I struggle mentally, but I’m also not able to have children...[so] even now, it’s difficult for me to have a good marriage. The shame I felt back then still haunts me and will continue to do so”.

The term “Pleasure Squad” made global headlines and exposed that groups of young virgins are selected for the North Korean leader and other high-ranking officials’ sexual entertainment (called the Kippujo which is often translated as the “Pleasure Squad”). The executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Greg Scarlatoiu, stated it is unsurprising that “[the] abuse the nation’s daughters in uniform suffer at the hands of the regime’s henchmen” and that these deplorable acts “[reflect] the deeply-embedded and incurable pervertedness and corruption of the party and the entire top leadership, all the way up to the top of the chain of command.” Women in North Korea, including female soldiers, have little to no protection from this system.

The Violence and Flight of North Korean Women

In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) released a summary of accusations against the North Korean government for its ongoing and wide-ranging crimes against humanity. In this 400-page document, the UNHCR compiled a list of policies established within the North Korean government that allowed and enforced abuses leveled against its people. The detailed report is disturbing, revealing a glimpse into North Korea’s cold indifference and willingness to allow extreme suffering to human life.

North Korea is a seemingly dystopian world made real. It is a place filled with violence against those who cannot defend themselves.

North Korean women live in a patriarchal society. This is due to lingering influences of Confucian values that are an essential part of East Asian history. North Korea’s lack of enforcement of human rights and abusive system of law has twisted gender inequality into a violent and sadistic part of many women’s lives.

“Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, unaddressed, and widely tolerated secret,” remarks Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. Following 54 interviews conducted with North Korean refugees who escaped from the state after Kim Jong Un’s rise to power, Human Rights Watch released an 86-page report on sexual violence against women in North Korea. In it, they detailed the brutal abuses endured by North Korean women in public, in their homes and in imprisonment. Quoting the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry, the report states that “domestic violence is rife within DPRK society... violence against women is not limited to the home, and that it is common to see women being beaten and sexually assaulted in public.”

It is currently estimated that approximately 200,000 North Korean refugees may live in hiding in China. Over 70 percent of them are women. In Crossing Borders’ analysis of over a thousand refugees who have passed through our network, it is not difficult to believe that over 80 percent of these women have been trafficked. Some of those who are in Crossing Borders’ care have been sold multiple times after their escape from North Korea.

It is not entirely clear why such a large percentage of the North Korean refugee population is composed of women. Hypotheses vary many of them not exclusive of one another but North Koreans’ ongoing vulnerability in China is all the more abusive and impactful for women. According to a report on North Korean human trafficking published by Korea Future Initiative, the demand for North Korean women and the network for trafficking them is still expanding rapidly in China.

Studies reveal that North Koreans are not only be sold into forced marriages, but in to sex slavery - including prostitution and cybersex trafficking. According to the author of the report, Yoon Hee-Soon, “Historically, forced marriage was the most common form of sex trafficking... But after speaking with victims still in China and particularly with our rescue teams, we soon realized broker-led sales of North Koreans to brothels had overtaken sales into forced marriages.”

North Korean women are still fleeing. The most recent statistics state that 969 North Korean women found refuge in South Korea in 2018. This is one of the lowest numbers seen for refugees who have successfully fled to South Korea in the past decade. This may be due to the increasingly dangerous route for North Koreans through the modern day Underground Railroad in Southeast Asia through Thailand or Laos. China and North Korea are reported to be increasing security along their borders to arrest fleeing defectors.

Currently, --- North Korean women have found safety and community in Crossing Borders’ network in China. Together, we are hoping, in the face of growing darkness, to provide counseling, care, compassion for so many who have been hurt and broken for so long. Please help Crossing Borders to reach the downtrodden and burdened. Please help us to continue our work to bring many women together in encouragement and  support. With love and faith, even in fear, North Korean refugees can find freedom.

A Thanksgiving Wish from Our Executive Director

A group of North Korean women and their children prepare a meal for us during one of our visits.

The following post was written by our Executive Director, Dan Chung.

I had a meal with a family who narrowly escaped North Korea as the authorities attempted to arrest them about eight years ago. In the rush to flee, they had to make the difficult decision to leave their youngest daughter behind. The three sat with me in a restaurant, father, mother and oldest daughter. None of them could eat because they were wracked with worry and guilt.

Crossing Borders has sat with North Koreans going through the worst of circumstances. Over the years I’ve learned to stay quiet and speak only when asked.

People sometimes ask me if I have trouble celebrating when I've witnessed so much sadness in the world. They’ve asked if events we host should be so ‘fun’ when the purpose is to remember those who have suffered so much.

My answer lies at the heart of the season we are about to celebrate: Thanksgiving. For through the simple act of giving thanks, we acknowledge the brokenness in this world but we also remember how blessed we are.

The first American Thanksgiving took place in 1621 in a time of immense difficulty for the Pilgrims, who had just landed on American shores one year prior.

“So, in some way, that day of Thanksgiving is also coming out of mourning,” said Kathleen Donegan, author of “Seasons of Misery: Catastrophe and Colonial Settlement in Early America.” “But we don’t think about the loss, we think about the abundance.”

Donegan is correct. When we think about Thanksgiving, we often think of the copious food and drink at the table. But the holiday was born out of sorrow and hardship.

Some of the most grateful people I have ever met are North Korean women. Women who have been robbed of everything they held precious: their families, their freedoms and their dignity. And yet, in the midst of these sorrows, they are joyful. They joke around, do impressions of each other and even their Dear Leader, sing and play games like little children. It is truly a sight to behold.

They are thankful not despite their circumstances but rather their circumstances drive them to focus on the good. From these women I am reminded that we can be truly thankful when we realize how fragile our circumstances are.

So when we feast this Thanksgiving, I hope we don’t push the uncomfortable thought of North Korean refugees and other suffering out of mind. This can only lead to guilt. I hope we hold them in our hearts so that we can truly remember how blessed we are.

For North Korean women, freedom in China can mean sex-trafficking

For many women who flee from North Korea into China, their futures are dependent upon the sex-trafficking market in China. Often sold to men who are disabled or elderly, these vulnerable women can be forced into situations that are far from the freedom they imagined.  

The South China Morning Post article features an interview with Miyoung, who was coerced into “choosing a husband” once sold to smugglers.

“[The couple] did everything to convince me that living with a Chinese man was my best choice to help my family back in North Korea,” she said. “They took me to the homes of various disabled or handicapped men in China for me to choose who I wanted to live with.

“I wept bitterly. I knew the punishment that awaited me in North Korea would be severe since I’d left without permission.”

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