The Creation of the Living Dead: North Korean Refugee Women in China
Jeannie Chung, Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
December 22, 2009
For the past nearly twenty years, North Korean women have waded through the muddy waters of
the Tumen River to cross the North Korean border into China. In fact, the majority of refugees
who flee North Korea for food or for hope of better economic opportunities are women. 1 Yet, for
many of these women, neither food nor better economic opportunities materialize: North Korean
refugee women are frequently lured by traffickers into performing sex work in karaoke bars or
brothels or are forced into illegal “marriages”2 to older, rural Chinese farmers.3 One woman, a
twenty-seven-year-old refugee, was conscripted into working at a karaoke bar as a hostess. When
speaking about her experience, she said, “Sometimes, I wished to die, but at other times, I think it
is much better to be here than go back to North Korea and die from hunger.”4
Indeed, for many of these women, it is unclear whether life in China or life in North Korea is
really life at all. North Korean refugee women are completely statusless in China: they are not
recognized as refugees but as economic migrants. Thus, the Chinese government renders them
“illegal immigrants,” not subject to any of the protections under the United Nations Treaty
relating to the Status of Refugees (“Refugee Convention”), of which China is a signatory. 5
Moreover, China and North Korea have signed a confidential treaty that requires China to deport
any North Korean citizen who does not have a valid travel permit back to North Korea.6 Thus,
North Korean women are subject to deportation at any time by Chinese government officials.
“Marriage” to a Chinese citizen is no shield from China’s deportation policies, since the marriages
are considered illegal and Chinese citizenship does not pass onto the North Korean woman
refugee.7
To be deported back to North Korea is no better, and perhaps worse, than life in China:
repatriated refugees are immediately sent to forced labor camps for months to years at a time.8
North Korean refugee women who have converted to Christianity through their interaction at the
1
Anti-Slavery International, An Absence of Choice: The Sexual Exploitation of North Korean Women in China 2
(2005).
2
I put “marriage,” “husbands,” “wives,” and “brides” in quotes throughout this paper not to pass judgment on these
marriages substantively, but to raise awareness that China does not legally recognize these “marriages,” and that these
terms have not only a cultural/societal, but also a legal, meaning that has huge implications for the immigration status
of these women in China.
3
Women are often exploited in the non-sex sector as domestic workers, and the line between sex sector and non-sex
sector labor can be blurred in this context. However, as (according to most reports) North Korean refugee women
often find employment as domestic workers without the assistance of traffickers, I focus in this paper specifically on
North Korean refugee women who have been trafficked into sexually exploitative work.
4
Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1, at 5.
5
Elim Chan and Andreas Schloenhardt, North Korean Refugees and International Refugee Law, International
Journal of Refugee Law 4-5 (2007). See also US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, The North Korean
Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response 24-40 (2006).
6
Id.
7
Chan and Schloenhardt, supra note 5, at XX.
8
Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1, at 9-11.
1
border with faith-based, harm-reductionist non-governmental organizations (“faith-based NGOs”)
are highly vulnerable to execution.9 Refugee women who are pregnant or about to give birth are
subject to forced abortions or infanticide.10 And, Chinese-Korean children who have been born
out of the “marriages” of North Korean refugee women to Chinese rural farmers become orphans
in China as soon as their mothers are deported to North Korea, because North Korea forbids such
“mixed-race” children to enter the country.11
In Part I of this paper, I begin by outlining why, how, and for what purposes these women are
trafficked. I also describe the unique role that faith-based NGOs play in their assistance of these
women: unlike other anti-trafficking organizations in Asia, these NGOs operate as harmreductionist groups because they work outside of China and North Korea’s criminalization systems
to “save” these women from the traffickers who exploit them. In Part II of this paper, I argue that
North Korea’s treatment of refugee women upon their repatriation from China becomes what
Michel Foucault calls a biopolitical project via four factors: (1) indirectly, through North Korea’s
classification of its citizens according to government loyalty, (2) the automatic sentencing of
repatriated refugees to hard labor, (3) the abortions and infanticide that pregnant repatriated
refugees must undergo in the labor camps, and (4) North Korea’s refusal to allow the ChineseKorean children of refugees entry into North Korea. I then argue that both China and North
Korea’s policies have, in Achille Mbembe’s parlance, created a necropolitical world for these
refugee women, who have become members of the living dead by virtue of their complete lack of
legal and social status in China and their criminalization and social ostricization upon repatriation
to North Korea.
Part I. The Scope of the Issue
A. Factors contributing to the trafficking of North Korean women along the China border
Several factors contribute to the trafficking of North Korean refugee women across the border into
China. On a general level, North Korea’s severe economic deterioration and resulting food
shortage, especially after the fall of the USSR, heavily drove the influx of refugees who crossed the
border into China to find food and better economic opportunities, as millions of North Koreans
literally began to starve to death.12 Moreover, flooding and other natural disasters decimated three
years’ worth of North Korea’s crop production in the early 1990s.13 Furthermore, while the
international community sent food aid to North Korea during this time, the aid was channeled
largely to military and other government officials and their families in Pyongyang. As a result, an
estimated two million North Koreans died from starvation from 1995-1998.14
9
Mike Kim, Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World’s Most Repressive Country 128-134 (2008).
Id. See also US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, supra note 5, at 18.
11
Kathleen Davis, Brides, Bruises and the Border: The Trafficking of North Korean Women into China, 26 SAIS
Review 135 (2006).
12
Id. at 132-133.
13
Id.
14
Id. See also US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, supra note 5.
10
2
The food shortage disproportionately affected North Korean women largely because of traditional
gender roles in North Korea. Traditionally, North Korean women were expected to procure food
for themselves and their families. This became very difficult during the food shortage, and
consequently, many North Korean women began to cross the border into China in order to
procure food or money.15 In addition, employment opportunities in China seemed less dangerous
and more lucrative for women than men, since men, who performed day labor work outside the
home and did not traditionally work within the home, were more visible and thus more vulnerable
to deportation by Chinese officials.16
Lastly, China’s one-child policy, as well as the legal incentives it has created for male child
preference by enacting patri-lineal name and inheritance laws, has resulted in a population dearth
of young Chinese women.17 This dearth is particularly apparent in rural areas, because women
born in these areas often migrate to urban areas for better economic opportunities.18 Therefore,
the North Korean women that traffickers sell are in high demand by Chinese men, often poor
rural farmers, who wish to purchase “wives.”
B. Methods by which North Korean women are trafficked
North Korean refugee women are usually trafficked in three ways. First, prior to leaving North
Korea, traffickers promise the women better employment opportunities in China.19 In some cases,
traffickers are explicit about their intentions to sell these women as “brides,” and emphasize the
better life these women would lead as a result of “marriage” to a Chinese “husband.”20 Families
also may opt to sell their daughters to a trafficker to make money.21 Second, while refugee women
are crossing the border, traffickers abduct them, either by force or by persuasion.22 Third, women
may be kidnapped and trafficked after having settled in China for a period of time. Traffickers
will kidnap these women at places with a high concentration of refugees, such as river crossings,
railroad stations, and markets near the border.23 In addition, Chinese officials might arrest a
refugee and, instead of deporting her, might sell her to traffickers.24
C. Purposes for which North Korean women are trafficked
North Korean women are trafficked for two main purposes: for sex work in karaoke bars or
brothels and as “brides” to Chinese rural farmers near the border.25 Many reports characterize the
15
Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1, at 2.
Id.
17
Davis, supra note 11, at 133.
18
Id.
19
Donna M. Hughes, The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking 61 (2005).
20
Davis, supra note 11, at 133.
21
Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1, 3-4.
22
Donna M. Hughes, supra note 19, at 61.
23
Davis, supra note 11, at 134.
24
Id.
25
More information is readily available on the experience of refugees who are sold to Chinese men as “brides” than is
available on women who are trafficked into the sex sector, which is why I focus more heavily in this paper on these
“marriages.” However, I wish to note that this information does not necessarily indicate that the vast majority of
16
3
men who purchase North Korean refugee women as “brides” as elderly, often widowed or disabled,
and poor rural farmers.26 Approximately sixty to seventy percent of women who are trafficked
experience abuse and violence by the hands of their traffickers and/or their Chinese “husbands.”27
Women have reported being locked up, physically and emotionally abused, and raped by the men
who purchased them as a way to make them subordinate; non-compliance can lead to starvation,
more beatings, and in some cases, death.28 However, many women stay in these “marriages”
because they have developed an emotional attachment to their husband who may treat them well
or because they have given birth to children who they do not want to abandon.29 Many women
also feel that their lives with their “husbands” are simply “better” than if they were to be deported
back to North Korea.30
D. The unique situation of the faith-based NGOs working at the border
The three most visible Christian faith-based NGOs that work with North Korean refugees who
have crossed the border into China are Crossing Borders, Helping Hands Korea, and Durihana
House.31 Each organization occupies its own niche in the field of assisting North Korean refugees
in China. Crossing Borders, founded by Mike Kim in 2004, works mainly with North Korean
refugees along the border to provide immediate (i.e., medical) and long-term (i.e., job training)
assistance, although they have also assisted some refugees in escaping to South Korea via the socalled “Underground Railroad.”32 Helping Hands Korea, founded in Seoul by Tim Peters, also
assists North Korean refugees at the border with China, but also works with North Koreans living
in North Korea both to ameliorate the food crisis and to assist Christians – who are harshly
punished often by death if discovered by North Korean officials – in the practice of their religion
within North Korea.33 Durihana House, founded by Chun Ki-Won, a pastor in Seoul, primarily
leads North Korean refugees through the “Underground Railroad” to South Korea and provides
resettlement support to North Korean refugees living in South Korea.34
Each organization condemns the practice of the trafficking of North Korean refugees either for
“marriage” or for sex work. However, unlike other Christian faith-based anti-trafficking
organizations such as the International Justice Mission (“IJM”), who work with the state and who
aim to use criminal sanctions to curtail sex trafficking,35 the faith-based NGOs operating on the
North Korea-China border do not work with either the Chinese or North Korean government,
because both China and North Korea will punish these women severely if their status is “revealed.”
women are sold as “wives.” More research on the experience of women trafficked into sex-sector labor is needed as a
general matter.
26
See Davis, supra note 11, at 133; Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1, at 3-4.
27
Davis, supra note 11, at 134.
28
Id.
29
Id. See also Anti-Slavery International, supra note 11, at 6-7.
30
Id.
31
See www.helpinghandskorea.org, www.crossingbordersnk.wordpress.com, and www.durihana.net.
32
See Kim, supra note 9.
33
See www.helpinghandskorea.org.
34
See www.durihana.net.
35
Noy Thrupksew, “The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking: ‘Sister, Why Doesn’t Anything Change?’”
www.rhrealitycheck.org (2009).
4
Implicit in these organizations’ policies is the assumption that the best interests of these women
are served not by deporting them back to North Korea, but by enabling them to live and work in
China, albeit in the shadows of the state.
Thus, these faith-based NGOs are largely harm-reductionist in approach, which starkly contrasts
with other faith-based anti-trafficking organizations operating in Asia. For example, IJM works in
tandem with law enforcement officials in Thailand to raid brothels and “save” sex-trafficked
women in the brothels by targeting brothel owners, pimps and madams.36 Conversely, the NGOs
working along the North Korea-China border are concerned not with the criminal persecution of
the traffickers or the Chinese men who either seek to pay for sex in karaoke bars or who pay for a
North Korean “wife.” These organizations care primarily about assisting these refugees in their
ability to survive in China. For example, Crossing Borders provides medical care to North Korean
refugee women immediately upon arrival in China, assists refugees in learning Mandarin and
finding work that is relatively free from abuse and exploitation, and in some cases resettles the
women in a country where they can be openly recognized as citizens, such as in South Korea.37
They also have created orphanages for the Chinese-Korean children who are left behind by
deported North Korean “wives” and the Chinese “husbands” who do not care for them.
If the ultimate goal of anti-trafficking organizations is to maintain the health and welfare of these
women, the harm-reductionist approach, at least in the North Korean context, is more beneficial
than the criminal justice approach, because these faith-based NGOs not only shield North Korean
refugee women from deportation, but also teach these women the skills needed to assimilate into
Chinese society and track their progress closely. In light of this normative assessment, I am
pushed to consider the extent to which the state can be an effective tool in safeguarding the health
and welfare of trafficked women. For states, criminalization approaches may be more familiar and
enforceable, and, at least in theory, more cost-effective than rights-based or harm-reductionist
approaches, which may require a greater expenditure of resources and may be difficult for states to
monitor or enforce. Yet, harm-reductionist approaches seem to take the individual needs of these
women into account with far more sensitivity than broad-based criminalization approaches. If
states cannot take on rights-based or harm-reductionist approaches as a practical matter, how can
they encourage private organizations to take on these approaches?
Part II. Biopolitics and Necropolitics as Applied to China and North Korea’s Policies Towards
North Korean Refugee Women in China
A. Biopolitics / North Korea
As a general matter, North Korea’s classification of its citizens can be characterized as a biopolitical
project. Foucault’s theory of biopolitics rests largely on the proposition that state policies seek to
organize the human species via the bodies of its citizens. North Korea advances two goals – to
preserve loyalty to its Dear Leader, Kim Jung-Il and to preserve a purely North Korean race – by
36
37
See Thrupksew, supra 35.
Id. at 187-198.
5
attaching the bodies of its citizens to governmental loyalty and by controlling the reproductive
activities of repatriated refugee women.38
1. Ensuring the Loyalty of North Korea’s Citizens
North Korea achieves this goal first by classifying its citizens into three categories: “core,”
“wavering,” and “hostile.”39 Each class represents the degree to which the people in the class are
loyal to the government. The “core” class consists of citizens who have demonstrated the most
loyalty to the government, usually military and government officials.40 The “wavering” class
represents people who have not demonstrated any showing of loyalty beyond what is required of
them as North Korean citizens.41 And, the “hostile” class has actively demonstrated disloyalty to
the government; people who have been sent to labor camps as punishment for disloyalty to the
government are instantly made a part of this class.42 Class and family are also related: one member
of a family classified as “hostile” can render the entire family “hostile,” and these class distinctions
endure throughout generations of families.43
The North Korean government has turned this system into a biopolitical project by basing its
rationing of food and other health and welfare services to its citizens depending upon which class
each citizen belongs.44 A North Korean citizen’s access to nearly all that sustains life is almost
completely dependent upon the citizen’s demonstrated loyalty to the government; thus,
predictably, people in the “wavering” and “hostile” classes make up the vast majority of refugees
fleeing North Korea to find food in China. 45 Moreover, once a citizen has been labeled “hostile,”
it is nearly impossible to move up in the classification to a more loyal status; thus, entire
generations of families are forever punished for the disloyalty of one family member.46 This policy
increases the incentive for North Korean family members to keep constantly on guard for conduct
from other family members that may classify them as “hostile,” which leads to an atmosphere of
distrust and secrecy both within the family and in the community.
2. Preserving a Pure North Korean State
In addition, by controlling the reproductive activities of North Korean repatriated women, North
Korea furthers its biopolitical goal to enforce and preserve a “purely” North Korean nation. First,
all repatriated refugees are immediately sentenced to forced labor in camps located throughout the
38
I acknowledge that throughout this paper, I discuss the experiences of three groups: North Korean citizens, North
Korean refugee women generally, and North Korean refugee women who are trafficked for sex-sector work or for
“marriage” to Chinese men. In this Part, I apply my theories to all groups, given the prevalence of trafficking that
occurs among refugee women and the connection between North Korea’s policies towards its citizens and the influx of
refugee women who cross the border into China.
39
Chan and Schloenhardt, supra note 5, at 2.
40
Id.
41
Id.
42
Id.
43
Id.
44
Id. See also US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, supra note 5.
45
Id.
46
Id.
6
country.47 Many North Korean women who have worked in the camps have reported that North
Korean officials will force pregnant repatriated women to undergo abortions, usually through
violent measures (i.e., kicking the women’s abdomens to induce abortion), or will commit
infanticide by conscripting other women in the labor camp to deliver the child, then kill the child
immediately after birth.48 “Married” women who have already given birth to children in China are
not allowed to bring their children back into North Korea, as these children are considered of
mixed race.49 These policies are largely put in place because North Korea insists on preserving a
“pure” North Korean nation; thus, these practices are a mechanism by which the “pure” North
Korean state can be enforced and preserved.50
B. Necropolitics / China & North Korea
Furthermore, the addition of China’s policies towards North Korean refugee women to North
Korea’s policies ultimately enable both countries to engage in what Achille Mbembe has coined
necropolitics with regards to North Korean refugee women. Considering what I have already
described about North Korea’s policies, I will first briefly describe China’s policies towards North
Korean refugee women, then apply Mbembe’s theory of necropolitics to these policies.
1. China’s Policies: Women are Statusless
In China, North Korean refugee women are completely statusless. Although China ratified the
Refugee Convention, which requires signing countries to provide for the right of refugees to apply
and receive asylum from political persecution, China views North Korean refugees as “economic
migrants” because they flee to China only to seek better economic opportunities and food security,
and China does not regard these justifications as linked to political persecution in North Korea.51
For this reason, North Korean refugees do not qualify for the protections of the Refugee
Convention.52 Moreover, China claims to have signed a confidential treaty with North Korea to
return North Korean citizens who have not obtained a valid travel authorization from North
Korean officials.53
For these reasons, China regularly seeks out and deports North Korean refugees back to North
Korea. “Marriage” to a Chinese “husband” does nothing to protect these women from
deportation: since they are considered illegal immigrants, and marriage to a Chinese national does
47
See Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1.
Id.
49
See US Committee on Human Rights, supra note 5.
50
See Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1; Davis, supra note 11; US Committee on Human Rights in North
Korea, supra note 5.
51
See Chan and Schloenhardt, supra note 5. Also, although I believe that North Korean refugee women are actually
victims of political persecution because their political classification as “wavering” or “hostile” renders them virtually
unable to obtain food or income, the asylum status of these women is not the focus of my paper and I refrain from
going into further detail here.
52
Id.
53
Id.
48
7
not endow citizenship, these “marriages” are considered null and void.54 In fact, many “married”
refugee women are regularly reported by others in the community to Chinese officials and
deported, leaving behind not only their “husbands,” but also children born of their “marriage.”55
That refugee women have no legal status in China renders them extremely vulnerable not only to
sexual exploitation but to exploitation in China’s labor market. Some refugees have recounted
that once employers discover that their employee is in fact North Korean, they abuse, fire, deny
benefits and/or wages, or otherwise mistreat her.56 Traffickers, brothel owners, and others in
positions of authority over these women also use the threat of deportation as a way to exercise
control over these women.57 And, it is not difficult for employers to identify their new employees
as North Korean due to these women’s unfamiliarity with China and inability to communicate
fluently in Mandarin.58
2. How China and North Korea’s Policies Create Death-Worlds and Classes of the Living Dead
China and North Korea’s policies have resulted in the creation of a death-world,59 to use Mbembe’s
terminology, and have rendered these North Korean women members of the living dead.60
Underlying Mbembe’s theory of necropolitics is the assumption that “the ultimate expression of
sovereignty resides…in the power…to dictate who may live and who must die.”61 Indeed, at a
broad level, China’s policies which render North Korean refugee women statusless, as well as
North Korea’s punishment and “hostile” classification of these women upon repatriation,
essentially determine whether these women live – i.e., have enough food to eat, have shelter over
their heads, have clothing to wear, and have access to health services and medication – or die.
Mbembe explains that necropolitics is a form of biopolitics with a strong focus on the very creation
of life and death at the hands of the state.62 He explores necropolitics in a variety of contexts,
from Nazi concentration camps where “inhabitants are divested of political status and reduced to bare
life” (emphasis added), to colonial occupation and wartime, especially in Israel and Palestine,
noting that one component that enables states to engage in necropolitics is the restriction of the
right to move about freely.63 Mbembe also applies Foucault’s notion of the “state of siege” to
necropolitics: “Foucault’s ‘state of siege’ is itself a military institution. It allows a modality of
killing that does not distinguish between the external and the internal enemy.”64
54
See Anti-Slavery International, supra note 1.
Id.
56
Id.
57
Id.
58
Id.
59
Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 15(1) Public Culture 40 (2003).
60
Id.
61
Id. at 11.
62
Id. at 16-25.
63
Id. at 12, 27-28.
64
Id. at 30.
55
8
Indeed, the treatment of trafficked North Korean refugees by both China and North Korea is
similarly born out of wartime. North Korea is not only technically “at war” with the United
States,65 but also is “at war” with its own people, as is evidenced by its presumption of disloyalty
towards its citizens. Forced labor camps, the locus of the punishment inflicted upon repatriated
refugee women, are indeed places where prisoners are “divested of political status and reduced to
bare life”: prisoners have no political or civil rights, they are rarely fed, left to starve to death, and
are forced to perform hard labor, such as farming or construction work, for up to fifteen hours a
day.66
China and North Korea have created another death-world through their policies towards North
Korean refugee women: the North Korea-China border itself. These women have no status in
China. And, except perhaps for the women who are under the care of the faith-based NGOs who
provide medical care, shelter, and educational services, they are entirely “reduced to bare life”:
their lack of status forces them to take any job that will offer them food or money, yet they are
forced to work inside the home, out of sight of the community who might report them to Chinese
officials. And, for those women who are sold to Chinese “husbands,” many endure abuse and
mistreatment and do not leave their new families because they feel helpless to change their
situation.
Lastly, another class of the living dead has been created by these policies: the children of North
Korean refugee women who are repatriated. These children often are kicked out of their homes in
China and turn to the street to beg for money or for food. Faith-based NGOs have begun to set
up orphanages for these children, but China has not officially recognized them as citizens, and
North Korean does not acknowledge their existence, indeed forbidding them from entering the
country.67 Ultimately, both China and North Korea’s necropolitical agendas create “death-worlds,
new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to conditions of
life conferring upon them the status of living dead.”68
CONCLUSION
North Korean refugee women who cross the border into China are vulnerable to traffickers who
channel them into sex work or “marriage” to rural Chinese farmers. Faith-based NGOs play a
unique role in the assistance of these women, because, unlike other anti-trafficking NGOs
throughout the world, these organizations work outside the state to provide health and welfare
services to the refugees who have left their Chinese “husbands” or sex work. Indeed, North
Korean refugees need the assistance of the NGOs because they are considered statusless in China,
and China regularly deports North Korean refugees, regardless of their marriage status. When
repatriated in North Korea, refugees are sent to labor camps, their families are deemed “hostile”
and consequently, access to basic life-sustaining needs is limited, and pregnant refugee women are
65
See US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, supra note 5.
See Mike Kim, supra note 9; US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, supra note 5; Anti-Slavery
International, supra note 1.
67
Id.
68
Mbembe, supra note 60, at 40.
66
9
often forced to undergo abortion, or officials will commit infanticide of their babies soon after
birth. Furthermore, the Chinese-Korean children of refugee women are forced to stay behind in
China while their mothers are repatriated back to North Korea. North Korea uses the bodies of its
citizens and repatriated refugees to advance two goals: to preserve loyalty to the North Korean state
and to preserve purity among the North Korean race. Moreover, China and North Korea’s
policies render these women, and their orphaned children who are left behind in China, a
necropolitical population, in which both China and North Korea exercise sovereignty over the
lives and deaths of these women and children.
10