The Hidden Gulag - US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

The Hidden Gulag Second EditionPART FOURDETENTION FACILI-TIES AND PUNISHMENTSFOR NORTH KOREANSFORCIBLY REPATRIATEDFROM CHINA: VIOLENCEAGAINST WOMENPart Four examines in greater detail testimonyfrom North Koreans who were forcibly repatriatedfrom China back to North Korea. Afterbeing handed over to North Korean police, therepatriated persons are detained and interrogatedin one or more police facilities generallyknown as ku-ryu-jang. Following interrogationand detention, which frequently includes beatingsand systematic torture, many of the forciblyrepatriated Koreans are assigned, often withoutjudicial process, to short-term forced labor.This occurs in frequently brutalizing detentionfacilities known as jip-kyul-so (provincial orsub-provincial detention facilities) or to mobilecorvee labor brigades known as ro-dong-danryeon-dae(labor training centers). Other repatriatedpersons, whose cases are deemed moreserious and often involve a political dimension,are sent to the longer term, felony level, forcedlaborpenitentiary-like kyo-hwa-so prisons, or“re-revolutionizing areas” of the kwan-li-so politicalpenal labor colonies.In recent years, young women have comprised asubstantial portion of repatriated persons. 95 Theirtestimonies report sexual humiliation, traffickingand violence, and the unconscionable abuse ofracially motivated forced abortion and infanticide.95 By some accounts, women comprise some 70 to 75 percent offorcibly repatriated persons in recent years.This section will first provide a description ofNorth Koreans who cross into China and theirsituation there, followed by testimonies of thoseforcibly repatriated and arbitrarily detained inNorth Korea for having exercised their humanright to leave their country.Why They Go: The Flow of NorthKoreans to ChinaFor several reasons, over the last fifteen to twentyyears, large numbers of North Koreans havebeen going to China. The largest number ofNorth Korean “border crossers” were peoplesimply seeking to survive, 96 by searching for foodor employment to help sustain their familiesin North Korea, particularly during the acutefamine in the 1990s. In the late 1990s, estimatesof the number of North Koreans who fled toChina ran as high as 200,000 to 300,000 persons.Almost all observers estimate the current numberto be considerably lower.Additionally, many North Koreans crossed, andcontinue to cross, the China border to engage insmall-scale import-export commerce – barteringor trading Korean goods, often food or forestproducts of one sort or another, for processedfood or consumer goods manufactured in China.Other North Koreans, having a well-foundedfear of persecution should they remain withinNorth Korea, cross the border to seek asylum.96 See The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and InternationalResponse, HRNK, Washington DC, 2006; Perilous Journeys:The Plight of North Korean Refugees in China and Beyond, InternationalCrisis Group, Brussels, 2006; Acts of Betrayal: The Challenge ofProtecting North Koreans in China, Refugees International, WashingtonDC, 2005.111