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are far below the local average. There are structural barriers to
filing complaints about working conditions due to the utter
13
absence of any legal protections.

Women represent about 80 percent of North Koreans who
escape to China. North Koreans flee into China for different
reasons, many desperate to escape the oppression under
the Kim regime and many in search of economic survival.
North Korean women and girls are often lured to China
by human traffickers under the pretext of finding work. As
a result, many are sold as “brides” to rural Chinese men or
forced into prostitution or online sex work. Based on HRNK
interviews with escapees, many are subjected to exploitation
and abuse. Because China considers North Korean refugees
to be “illegal economic migrants,” these women and girls are
even more vulnerable to abuse. They can be turned over to
the authorities, arrested, and forcibly repatriated despite a
credible fear of persecution by the North Korean authorities.
As many as 80 percent of female North Korean refugees fall
into the hands of human traffickers and are sold into the sex
trade which which is estimated to generate more than $105
million a year for Chinese and North Korean organized crime
14
networks. Those who are repatriated are subject to torture
and inhumane treatment at detention facilities in North
Korea. North Korean women suspected of having become
pregnant with Chinese men are even subjected to forced
abortions and infanticide.

13 Smith, 125.
14 Julian Ryall, “North Korean girls exploited in China’s ’Red Zone’,” Deutsche Welle, March 27, 2023. https://
www.dw.com/en/north-korean-girls-exploited-in-chinas-red-zone-report/a-65137209.

Chapter Nine : Addressing the North Korean Conundrum 149