Ahn Mi Ran (43) - defected in 2003 to China, born in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung,
escaped forced organ sales and said, "women who go around the provinces alone
for trade become targets of men's sex crimes as well."
Ran continues, "One woman I knew worked as a runner (trader) from Pyongyang to
Hamheung. According to her, women who ride trains experience a lot of [sexual
assualt] incidents. Trains stop often and become delayed, so women frequently
stay on the trains until the middle of the night, but there are no electric
lights. So men come up to women, [They usually] are around 50 years old and
grope their bodies [of young women]. When this became chronic, women just
accepted this as how things were. When she told her husband, he told her to
stop immediately, but there was no way to live if she did not trade, so she
still runs. Women who run have to prepare themselves for such incidents."
Particularly, if these problems become publicly known, it impacts the women's
entrance to the Labor Party. Kang Soon Nhuh (40) who defected to China in 2002,
born in Hyesan Yangkang, also escaped organ sales explained, "If women become
admitted, they can become big leaders, so there are a lot of women who want to
enter. If women stay at home, they get entangled with the Union of Democratic
Women, which is exhausting. But they do not touch women who are admitted to the
party for the most part."
"But women, upon entrance, have to submit their bodies to the leaders. If women
are admitted, it automatically means these women have undergone such
incidences. After returning from the Army, they become automatically admitted.
This is standard. It has become such a prevalent incidence, that anybody will
acknowledge this," Nunh says.
In North Korea, sex trade is prohibited in principle, but after the severe food
shortage in mid-1990s, this practice has spread extensively, centering on
stations in big cities. Prostitution can be the utmost survival method that
women have available to them.
Lee Eun Hee said, "If you go to the Pyongyang station, old women will approach
men and ask if they will not take up standby lodging. Standby lodging, in one
word, means homestay. Men, if they are interested, will point to a woman
standing on the platform and inform, "this one for 10,000 won and that one for
25,000 won (approximately USD $8.50). Women are not gathered in one place, but
stand scattered between people. The price is based on appearance and age, in
that order. If the man selects a woman, they go together."
She added, "Among these women, vagabonds are included. In the starvation
period, there were news that female college students would go out to the
streets to sell themselves."
Additionally, secondary problems resulting from improper teaching of sex
education is not insignificant. North Korean teenagers are hardly receiving
what can be called, "sex education." Female students are taught in applied
subjects about women's hygiene, health, and raising a baby, but male-female
relationships are not taught.
Kim Young Soon (23), who defected in 2003, withdrew from Pyongyang High-Tech
University heard a college friend's petition one day, "Comrade, can you help me
get rid of a baby?" In a North Korean college, if the pregnancy is revealed,
the student is kicked out of school. But Ms. Kim did not know what to do
because she had not yet received such an education that would offer a solution.
Soon said, "Chosun women have not received education even once since their
birth. There are no contraceptives and they have not even heard of a condom. I
went to the neighborhood clinic and gave the doctor the value of a cigarette
and pleaded. Finally, I was referred to an obstetrician at the district's
hospital. But even there, you have to give money under the table to the doctor.
Hospitals do not even give food, so we had to bring rice ourselves. After
paying 30,000 won, my friend was able to safely undergo the surgery."
"The doctor said many women receive such surgeries. But some women do not even have money and are ashamed, so they do not go the hospital but damage their bodies while using folk remedies. Chosun women do not have such an education, so they hear from their mothers to drink eggs diluted in vinegar or to fall from a precipice to abort the baby. The doctor said never to try such means, because of the damage to the body. But even at the hospital, you have to give adequate money to receive comfortable treatment."
