North Korean Brides become Commodities in China

In China a new underground railroad has appeared as foreigner mostly from the US have come as a group that North Koreans could count on for assistance. Now though, some activists say that many of them turned out to be women fleeing from the Chinese men who had purchased them as brides.

The only practical escape route for fugitives from North Korea is through China, and human-rights groups say roughly 80 percent of those thousands of refugees are women and girls who have become “commodities for purchase,”.

The most popular marketplaces are in the three Chinese provinces closest to the North Korean border—Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang—but North Korean brides are sold to men throughout China.

Many of the buyers are farmers. Some have physical or mental disabilities that make them unsuitable as husbands in the eyes of Chinese women. In almost every case, the men are buying the one thing they want most in life: a wife.

Many say that one of the reasons for the new bridal market is the heavy male to female ratio in China as the result is an epic surplus of bachelors. Moreover, Young women are fleeing the farm in droves, attracted by well-paying factory jobs and comfortable urban lifestyles. In the three provinces closest to North Korea, the ratio of young men to young women is a staggering 14 to 1, according to an estimate from the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

North Korean brides are “thrice victimized,” says Ambassador Mark Lagon, former director of the State Department’s human-trafficking office. “They have fled starvation and human-rights abuses in North Korea,” he notes. “They are subject to abuse as undocumented migrants in China. And if they are sent back to North Korea, they face severe punishment, even execution in some cases.”

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Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com