Three months earlier, I was on assignment for Current TV. I was reporting on the trafficking of North Koreans, most of them women, who escape to neighboring China, where they are used and exploited. Following a local guide we'd hired, my colleague Euna Lee and I did regretfully step foot into North Korean territory for no more than a minute.
We were the first Americans tried in North Korea's highest court. Our sentence, two years for trespassing and 10 for "hostile" acts, shows where the North Korean government's real concerns lie. Leery about a negative portrayal of its regime, the North Korean authorities decided the documentary we were making would threaten their government. It was seen as a hostile act meant to weaken or bring down the country.
No country on Earth is more paranoid about its image than North Korea, which has maintained its firm grip on power in part because of its ability to indoctrinate its people. North Korea is one of the world's most closed-off societies, with little known about what goes on inside. Its citizens know little about the outside world.
As we made our way back to China, North Korean soldiers chased us onto Chinese soil and violently dragged us back into North Korea.
A young woman, whom I'll call Ji-Yong, recounted her escape, braving the rushing waters of the Tumen River that separates North Korea and China. Not knowing how to swim, she nervously made her way across the frigid waters in the dark. She had been told she could find a better life in China and that there would be work opportunities in the computer industry. Instead she was placed in the online sex industry and was forced to undress for clients who watched her via the web.
Her boss tied her arms behind her back and locked her in a room to prevent her from escaping.
With help from a friend, she was able to get away, but with nowhere to go and no money, she ended up working for another online sex company. She was grateful that her boss treated her humanely and allowed her to go outside for breaks. With tears streaming, smearing her thick black eyeliner, she spoke of how much she missed her mother.
Ji-Yong's story is becoming increasingly common as traffickers prey on vulnerable and scared women from North Korea. Many others are sold like commodities into loveless marriages where they are abused and treated like slaves.
North Korean women have no legal status in China, so the children they bear with Chinese husbands also suffer. The Chinese government does not grant these children citizenship; they must live in the shadows as stateless children with no access to public health care or education. If the mothers are deported, or leave their husbands, the children are often left abandoned and orphaned.
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