Thousands of North Korean women and girls — some as young as nine — are being trafficked into sexual slavery in China as they try to flee poverty and oppression in their homeland, experts on the North said yesterday.
The sexual exploitation of North Koreans generates at least US$105 million in annual profits for the Chinese underworld, according to a report by the non-profit Korea Future Initiative, which includes harrowing accounts from trafficked women.
“Victims are prostituted for as little as 30 Chinese yuan [US$4.30], sold as wives for just 1,000 yuan and trafficked into cybersex dens for exploitation by a global online audience,” said Yoon Hee-soon, the report’s author. “Many are sold more than once and are forced into at least one form of sexual slavery within a year of leaving their homeland.”
An estimated 60 percent of North Korean girls and women in China are trafficked into the sex trade, according to the report, which was to be released at an event at Britain’s parliament later in the day.
Nearly half are pressed into prostitution, about a third sold into marriage and most others pushed into cybersex, researchers said.
Many North Koreans are enslaved in brothels in districts in northeast China with large migrant worker populations, the report said.
Trafficking survivors said prostitutes in Shanghai were branded with tattoos such as lions and butterflies to show ownership and deter abductions by rivals.
Interviewees told of women dying from sexually transmitted diseases and abuse.
Girls and women enslaved in cybersex dens are usually aged between 12 and 29 but sometimes younger, the report said.
They are forced to perform sex acts or sexually assaulted in front of webcams.
A live-stream featuring a young girl can cost US$110, researchers said, adding that many subscribers appeared to be South Korean.
One woman, referred to as Ms Choi, told how she was taken to an apartment where she was shocked to see prepubescent girls.
“[There] was a bed in front of a table with a computer and webcam. Four men ... gang raped me. When the third man began raping me [I] was bleeding ... I cannot remember any more,” she said.
The report said women forced into marriage were mostly sold in rural areas for 1,000 to 50,000 yuan, and were raped and abused by their husbands.
Estimates of the number of North Koreans in China vary between 50,000 and 200,000.
China’s policy of detaining and repatriating North Koreans forces them to live in the shadows, placing them at high risk of exploitation, Yoon said.
Some are sold by policemen after arrest, the report said, while others are duped by traffickers offering to get them to countries where they can claim asylum.
Researchers said some trafficking networks stretched into North Korea where “sub-brokers” scour markets, villages and transport hubs for destitute-looking girls to fulfill orders from Chinese pimps and madams.
The London-based Korea Future Initiative urged all states to help North Koreans in China escape.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
RSS