As the COVID-19 pandemic has locked down China's borders, these vulnerable individuals have become easy targets for traffickers, facing a lifetime of sexual and mental abuse, slavery, or forced labor. According to Sofia Evangelou, the organization's North Korea Lead Legal Advisor, "The current situation leaves North Korean women and girls exposed to the start reality of either being sold into a lifetime of sexual and mental abuse, slavery, forced, labor, or reaching freedom.”
One North Korean woman was sold off to a Chinese man who regularly beat her because she couldn't get pregnant. Another woman was sent back to a forced labor camp and tried to hide her pregnancy from authorities, only to later drown in a river from exhaustion.
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March 27, 2023
According to the U.S. State Department, up to 30,000 children born to North Korean women and Chinese men have remained unregistered, making them stateless and vulnerable to exploitation.
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Evangelou emphasizes the urgent need for a full investigation into the human rights abuses endured by North Korean women and girls. "A full investigation into the human rights abuses suffered by women in and around North Korea is urgently needed, If nothing is done to address the urgent human rights situation for North Korean women, the situation will only get worse."