generalspeaking

Sexual Violence in the Peoples' Republic of North Korea

"Having sex with men who have power over you, or letting them touch all over your body is a necessity to survive."
"It never occurred to me that I could or would want to do anything about it. It was just how things are."
20-year-old former North Korean trader

"Market guards or police officials would ask me to follow them to an empty room outside the market, or some other place they'd pick."
"They consider us toys."
40-year-old former North Korean trader

"Corruption is so rampant that anybody without power has no choice."
"Traders like my wife have to accept that sexual coercion is part of social and market dynamics. It is the only way to survive."
"I know what I know, but we don't talk about it."
Husband of 40-year-old former trader

"Every night, some woman would be forced to leave with a guard and be raped."
"Click, click, click was the most horrible sound I ever heard. It was the sound of the key of the cell of our prison room opening."
30-year-old former North Korean trader

Women in the sitting position in a pre-trial detention facility run by the police. The report alleges that detainees are commonly forced to assume this position in pre-trial detention and temporary holding facilities.

Close to 38 percent of 1,125 North Korean defectors in a 2014 survey conducted by the South Korean Institute for National Unification stated that in their experience sexual harassment and rape were "common" incidents in North Korean holding centers and prisons. Of that total thirty-three woman stated that they had been raped while confined there. Woman who enter China illegally in search of work or to smuggle goods are vulnerable when they are caught and repatriated.

Back in North Korea they are placed in these holding centers and prisons where their exposure to abuse and violence is widespread. Woman rarely reported such instances as crimes, fearing reprisal. They were also loathe to admit they were victims of sexual violence and rape because of North Korean society's widespread stigma in which rape victims are held. And the atmosphere where coerced sex is so common men think nothing of their actions other than their entitlement to take what they want.

The North Korean economic conditions meant that people were forced to find a means of making a living wherever and however they could. In 2011 Kim Jong-un relaxed restrictions on markets and this is where mostly female North Koreans were finally able to engage in hopes of making a living. In so doing they also became victims of male officials extorting bribes and demanding sex favours. A new report by Human Rights Watch has brought attention to this little-known social condition.

A female trader gives a bribe to a market supervisor in an alley near the market. The report describes how female traders offer bribes in order to avoid potential harassment.

Human Rights Watch undertook to interview 29 women who had managed to leave North Korea following the advent of Kim Jong-un's assumption of power in the Peoples' Republic. The women agreed they would be amenable to discussing the abuse they had suffered with the proviso that pseudonyms were used, to avoid identifying them in fear of their families still living in North Korea being persecuted as a result of their revelations.

The famine of the 1990s saw 32,000 North Koreans fleeing to South Korea, mostly women and many have reported the widespread sexual violence that prevails there. A United Nations commission had documented systemic human rights violations in the North in 2014, violations that included sexual violence. The current report issued by Human Rights Watch validated those findings which focused exclusively on sexual abuse by men in position of authority.

The 20-year-old former trader, in her testimony described having been sexually assaulted on several occasions by police officials and train inspectors between 2010 and 2014, when she managed to flee the North. Women gave no thought to resisting these aggressive overtures since the alternative would mean loss of their main source of income, jeopardizing the survival of their families. Should they have resisted, the officials would declare the women's travel and trading illegal, confiscate their goods and send them to prison.

"The idea that sexual violence is wrong, that it would not be my fault, that some 'law person' could be there to try to protect me could have never even occurred to me while living in North Korea."
Former North Korean trader 

Male government officials and female traders sit in a railway carriage, while a railroad officer checks a female trader's ticket. The report alleges that in railway carriages, women often face harassment by male government officials and railroad officers.

Labels: Female Exploitation, Markets, North Korea, Sexual Predation

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 13, 2018