N. Korean Women Sold Into Marriage in China

Chinese human trafficking rings are selling North Korean women into marriage in China.

The rings receive details on age and other preferences from Chinese men, recruit women from all regions in the North, get the women across the border, and then sell them to Chinese men living in rural areas.

The Dong-A Ilbo has found that Chinese rings have engaged in the trafficking of North Korean women over the past decade. They are active in the northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang and also in Hebei, Anhui and Jiangsu.

North Korean women have been recruited from the border cities of Musan, Hoeryong and Hyesan and also from inland areas.

Several crime rings are apparently dealing in the trafficking. This was confirmed by North Korean women living in a Chinese rural village who named several organizations.

Demand for North Korean brides is high from Han Chinese as well as ethnic minorities in China. One Chinese village even had more than 20 North Korean women.

The price of a North Korean wife is set at between 3,000 yuan (439 U.S. dollars) and 10,000 yuan (1,464 dollars).

Dong-A got details on the price via interviews with North Korean women sold into marriage, Chinese men living with such trafficked women, and Chinese government officials.

Chinese sources said most of the trafficked women were deceived by brokers under the guise of promising them passage over the border and higher paying jobs.

The North Korean women mostly discovered that they were sold into marriage only after they arrived in the buyers’ rural homes. Most of them, however, do not attempt to escape since they cannot speak Chinese and are afraid of being caught.

Most of the trafficked women live well with their Chinese husbands and give birth to children. Others, however, escaped from physically abusive husbands or chose to return to the North.

Some children born to North Korean mothers and Chinese fathers are registered as the offspring of single Chinese men and given an education. Many other such children are not registered, however, and thus cannot go to school.