Brides, Bruises and the Border: The Trafficking of North Korean Women into China

Increasing poverty in North Korea is forcing many North Korean women to seek better lives in China. They become victims of cross-border trafficking through a number of means, including being sold by their families and acquaintances or illegally migrating into China. Women are often promised better jobs or a good life as a wife in China, but their situations rapidly deteriorate when they fail to find jobs or suffer abuse by their new husbands. Some women are kidnapped and forced to work in the highly exploitive sex industry. If a woman is able to extricate herself from the trade and return to North Korea, she is often treated as a criminal instead of a victim, in many cases being imprisoned and forced to do hard labor. If she finally returns to her village, she is treated as a social pariah, creating heightened vulnerability to re-trafficking. Both the Chinese and North Korean governments deny a problem exists, and, despite international pressure, are taking no corrective action.