A North Korean Hell

Fire of Liberty

Donna M. Hughes, Professor and Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island, has a detailed piece over at National Review Online showing the horrors that are committed against the various female North Korean refugees who escape from North Korea into China searching for food or just freedom. Hughes notes that the women who escape from North Korea face rape, murder, and being sold into slavery or prostitution if they are found out in China and if they're returned to North Korea they face imprisonment, rape, forced to have abortions or commit infanticide as well as the possibility of being executed. Just take a look at Professor Hughes's powerful piece:

Pastor Chun Ki-won's name and his mission are well-known among refugees hiding in China. He receives one to two letters a day from women describing how they have been sold and asking for assistance. He said, "Women are treated like animals. They have no rights. Whoever finds them first can sleep with them. Then he sells them later."

Refugees caught in China are routinely arrested and deported to North Korea. Those who flee from North Korea are considered traitors to the government and the ruling ideology of Juche or self reliance. The returnees are imprisoned in detention centers, interrogated, mistreated, and starved. Pregnant women are forcibly aborted or newborns killed to keep "foreign" blood out of North Korea.

According to a first-hand report, in March 1999, a 26-year-old woman in a detention center was executed for "selling herself" in China. Yun Hye-ryeon, wife of Aquariums of Pyongyang author Kang Chul-hwan, was in the cell next to this woman. The woman had crossed into China to feed herself and her baby, but according to the North Korean officials she fell under the influence of capitalism and sold herself for money. She was publicly executed as a lesson to others.

Yun Hye-ryeon works with her husband for their human-rights organization — NK Gulag — to collect testimonies from refugees. She says that the majority of women refugees in China are raped and trafficked. Even those who have made it to South Korea still suffer from the trauma of their experience. "North Korean women in South Korea have painful memories in their hearts." As a result of being sold several times, they don't trust men any more. They still suffer from the trauma of their experience and have a difficult time adapting to life in South Korea.

And people wonder why President Bush personally stated he loathes Kim Jong Il and his tyranny. If you want to learn more about the horrific nature of North Korea then check out Kang Chol-Hwan's masterful work The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. After reading this you'll see why North Korea is a literal hell on Earth. Hopefully, someone will free the people of North Korea from this sometimes soon.