Courtesy of OFK, comes this great interview of a modern day Korean sex slave in China. Here is a sample of the interview:
For a while, all seemed well: she earned her keep, and a little pocket money, by working on the family farm, obtained a false identity and even began a romance with the farmers’ son.
Then, four years ago, she was caught by the Chinese police, searching farm to farm in a crackdown on illegal immigrants. “They checked my documents, and they were fake,” said Miss Ban.
“They said they would arrest me and give me back to the North Korean authorities. We all know what that means.”
The policemen forced her to have sex with each of them in turn, and then demanded she hand them most of her savings in return for keeping quiet.
The only alternative then was to go on the run again. “I knew they would not leave me alone,” she said. “These people are like leeches. They would suck you dry, and when you are of no further use to them, give you away.”
That was when a North Korean friend offered her a job at the massage parlour, where she is “protected” because the owner bribes the police.
She is unusual in having gone there of her own accord: many of her colleagues, she says, have been “sold” to the parlour in order to pay their debts to cross-border people-trafficking gangs. The slightest word of complaint, and the police will be tipped off about their illegal status.
This is what Ms. Ban had to say about returning to North Korea:
People like Miss Ban, however, have extra reason to feel a shudder when they glance across the river. Should she be caught by the Chinese authorities and deported, she would face jail, labour camp and possibly even execution, all for the crime of abandoning the “paradise on earth” created by Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s tyrant leader.
She vows, however, that this will never happen. “The only way I’m going back to Korea is in a coffin,” she said, a look of defiance flashing across her face. “F*** you, comrade Kim Jong-il.”
Make sure you read the whole thing because her story is tragic and representative of the tens of thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in China that South Korea and the rest of the world prefer to pretend do not exist. This is why I have a hard time taking seriously the demagogues that condemn Japan for sexual slavery of women during World War II, but they do nothing to stop the trafficking of sex slaves in China today.
