A Letter from a North Korean Woman in China

April 6, 2023

Greetings,

I am Kim, who has been in China for 10 years.

Today, I picked up my pen to write down a few experiences I have had since coming to China.

I crossed the Yalu River in 2013 and spent a week in Zhangbai County, China, before arriving at Liaoning Province.

My human trafficker was an ethnic Korean Chinese man from Zhangbai.

He sold me to a North Korean woman living in Liaoning Province, and then went back himself.

From then on, my painful life in China began.

I was 30 years old at the time, and the North Korean girl to whom I was sold was only 24.

She bought me from a Zhangbai broker for a reasonable price.

So, that North Korean girl tried to sell me to a Chinese man at the time.

Then one day, a call came from someone she knew, telling her to bring me to a specific location.

So, that North Korean girl and her husband took me in a taxi to that place.

But the man who was said to have come out with one man had three other men with him, so the five of them abducted me by force, chased away the North Korean girl and her husband, and fled.

It was truly absurd.

I was dizzy with confusion, not knowing what to do after being kidnapped in this unfamiliar land.

Afterwards, one of the men drove for about four hours before another man came and took me away.

I later found out that I had been kidnapped and sold.

But the man who bought me didn't buy me to live with; he bought me to make money.

He transferred me to another car and handed me a phone.

I answered without knowing what was going on, only to hear a North Korean woman's voice on the other end.

I spoke with both fear and delight, and she said that if I needed anything, she would translate for me, as she knew that man.

So I stayed at his house for a few days until he found a man for me to marry.

But I was sold to a remote mountain valley in Liaoning Province.

There was nothing I could do as I couldn't speak or write.

So, I just spent 10 months there until I became pregnant.

But it was a nuisance rather than a blessing, as I hadn't wanted the child.

Furthermore, they hardly cared for me, only giving me enough food to survive.

In that situation, I was not taken to the hospital once during my pregnancy, and only in the last month did they take me to a small clinic, where they said it might be difficult to give birth because of anemia.

They didn't take any measures even after hearing that from the clinic.

That's when I realized I couldn't live there and give birth.

So, 10 months after arriving, which was 9 months pregnant, I ran away with just 200 yuan in Chinese money, barefoot, even without a cellphone.

The house was deep in the mountains, so I had to climb a big mountain to reach the road, clutching my large stomach, and I ran and ran.

Fortunately, I had saved one Chinese phone number from a friend when I was in North Korea.

So, I just ran frantically along the road, trusting only that phone number.

As luck would have it, I met a kind person.

There was a car parked by the road in the middle of the night.

The driver got out, and my pathetic appearance, running frantically with my large belly, must have touched him.

I couldn't understand what he was saying, so he handed me paper and a pen.

He then drove me to the city where the North Korean woman lived without taking a penny.

I went back to the North Korean woman's house and told her I didn't want to have the baby.

But since it was time, I couldn't not have it, so I told her to do whatever she wanted.

So that woman took me to the small town hospital with her husband, but the hospital said they couldn't do it.

They said ninety percent of the life of pregnant women could not be guaranteed, so I should go to a big hospital in Shenyang.

We visited three hospitals, but they all said the same thing.

My blood volume was only 51% of the average, so neither natural birth nor surgery was possible.

But how could people like us, with no identity, parents, relatives, or money, go to a big hospital?

So I made a fuss at the last hospital.

I said I wouldn't hold the hospital responsible even if I died, so the woman's husband made an agreement with the hospital.

I had to get 16kg of plasma transfusion, but I survived with a stubborn life.

But I wasn't happy to have survived.

After surviving, the woman who had taken care of me said I had to get married again as she calculated the cost of the surgery, plasma, and medicine, since I had given birth and tried to save the baby by receiving treatment.

So, without any choice and before the surgery wound had even healed, I was sold again in just 20 days.

I really wondered why I had to live like this.

Thus, I was sold to another house, and two years later, I gave birth to my first child.

Now I am a mother of three children, living a difficult life with my husband who has no hand, and my in-laws, without any choice.

In China, our lives as North Korean women are truly meaningless.

Since I am still alive and now have children, I am forced to live like this.

The story is too long to write, so I have briefly summarized the key points.

If there is a chance later, I will write again.

And the Chinese broker who sold me specializes in selling North Korean women, and if they don't obey, he beats them mercilessly.

About six years ago, that Chinese broker even beat a North Korean girl to death for not obeying him.

But that's not a punishable offense under Chinese law.

So that Chinese broker, without receiving any legal punishment, is still walking around shamelessly as if nothing had happened.

It's really outrageous and unbelievable.

Since people are treated as less than human, the women living in China all want to go to South Korea, and those who have not yet gone are eagerly waiting for the way to South Korea to open.

I will end my story for today here.

April 6, 2023

KIM

My name is Kim, and I defected to China 9 years ago.

2023

I am Kim, and I defected to China 9 years ago.

In North Korea, I lived in a rural village for ** years and never had the opportunity to attend school properly.

I struggled alongside my sick mother and younger sibling.

Starting at 15, I engaged in various trades, doing anything I could to support my 12-year-old sibling and parents; there's no business I haven't tried.

There was nothing to eat so that I even tried stealing corn and selling liquor as a child.

While visiting rural homes for business, I met a woman who, seeing my young age and hardship, expressed sympathy.

This woman told me she knew of a place in China where I could earn good money, asking why I suffered so much.

She offered to send me to China, saying life there would be better for my family and I wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

Thinking of my ailing mother and sibling, I believed that in China, I could live well and even get them treated.

So I came to China.

The first place I went seemed like a nice, newly built house in a rural area belonged to a wealthy family.

However, it turned out I was sold to be the wife there.

When I failed to become pregnant for over two months, they took me to a hospital for a check-up.

They made me take medication to conceive quickly, emphasizing the urgency to have a child.

Out of curiosity, I asked the person who sold me why such a seemingly affluent household wanted a North Korean woman.

The broker replied that children born of North Korean women are intelligent.

The broker promised that once I gave birth to a child in this house, they would send money to my sibling and mother, so I also wished for a child to come quickly.

However, those words were a lie to make me settle down in that house, and their real intent was just to sell me after receiving money.

I only found out later that the Chinese husband in the house I married into had an 'intellectual disability', and he couldn't speak or act properly due to his disability.

He was someone who only did as his parents told him.

His inability to get a Chinese wife, despite his wealth, was the reason I was bought from human traffickers to bear his child.

I became pregnant six months later.

Around the sixth month of pregnancy, they took me to a hospital where I was diagnosed with hepatitis.

They moved up the delivery date by 15 days to make me give birth, saying the baby could also be infected.

After the surgery, I was discharged from the hospital after just 5 days and returned to that house.

Nobody looked after me, neither in the hospital nor at home, because they feared the disease might spread.

Not even a week after undergoing the surgery and giving birth, they only gave me some food to cook and eat by myself.

They didn't let me leave the room.

I wasn't even allowed to hold my own child.

I was confined to that room for two months.

After recovering slightly, I was allowed outside but kept away from the baby.

I saw my baby only through a window.

They wouldn’t even let my “husband" come near me.

For two years in that house, I only had to do whatever they say.

I could only watch my child grow from a distance.

They never let me hold my child even once.

Once, when I secretly held the baby, the man’s father saw and beat me.

He cursed and beat me up, saying what if my disease was transmitted to the baby.

In that house, I lived each day as their servant, doing their chores.

I couldn't bear to live there anymore, so I managed to escape.

Through someone who spoke a bit of Korean in China, I was sold to another place.

But the thought of my child compelled me to return three years later.

However, they pretended not to know me and turned me away at the door.

Now, I live in the place where I was resold, but I've been unable to have another child.

I think I was not properly taken care of after childbirth.

Even after several years have passed, I can't have another child.

The purpose of buying me in my current household was also to bear a child, but I can't give birth.

The man I live with, who is 15 years older than me, hits me brutally when he drinks.

He looks down on me and despises me for not being able to have a child, and I have no words to respond.

If I move to another place in this land and still can't have a child, I'd face the same scorn and contempt.

At least here, the only person who mistreats me is the man I live with, no other family members.

Yet, compared to others, this is still a better place.

I feel that the only country that can warmly treat and care for someone like me, granting me an identity, is South Korea.

I wish to live as a human being even for a day, and it would be wonderful if I could live confidently with a proper identity.

Here in China, I don't have an identity, which means I cannot get a decent job.

Even if I do work, I am forced to do the hardest jobs.

Because I am a North Korean woman without any recognized status here, I couldn't even receive the money I earned properly.

When I work alongside Chinese people and ask for the same pay, they threaten to report me to the police, citing that I am a North Korean woman without legal status.

I cannot even ask for more money then.

I desperately wish to meet kind-hearted people soon, go to South Korea, where I can live a dignified life worthy of a human being.