Archive for the ‘Emigration’ Category

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Number of N. Koreans defecting to S. Korea increases nearly 60 percent

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

Yonhap
Byun Duk-kun
8/23/2006

The number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea increased by nearly 60 percent in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period of last year, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.

A total of 1,054 North Koreans have come to the country as of the end of July, up 59 percent from a year ago, the ministry said in a report. Apparently hundreds more are waiting to find their way here, it said.

Earlier reports said a group of 175 North Koreans were rounded up by Thai police on suspicion of illegal immigration Tuesday, only hours before they were to board a passenger jet flying to South Korea.

The chief of the Thai police’s immigration bureau, Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, was quoted as saying the North Koreans would be prosecuted, but would be detained “on a humanitarian basis” until they leave the country since they are seeking refuge in third countries.

The number of North Koreans coming to the South has steadily increased since the late 1990s with more than 100 finding their way here in 1999 for the first time since the end of 1950-53 Korean War.

The number increased to 1,139, breaking the 1,000 mark for the first time, in 2002, and rose to 1,281 in 2003 and 1,894 a year later.

International relief agencies, however, believe as many as 100,000 North Koreans may still be hiding in other countries, mostly in China, while civic organizations working to help the North Koreans put the number at 300,000 in China alone.

With no relatives or jobs in China, most of the North Korean defectors live in extreme destitution, usually making a living by begging. The Chinese government refuses to recognize them as refugees and regularly rounds them up and sends them back to their communist homeland where they are reportedly tortured, prosecuted and often executed.

The South Korean government says it will accept any North Koreans coming to the country, but cannot encourage or support their defection because of its relations with the North, as well as with other countries, which are used as stopovers for North Korean defectors.

Beijing is bound by a written agreement with Pyongyang to repatriate any North Koreans in its custody, according to government officials.

North and South Korea remain divided along a heavily-fortified border since the fratricidal Korean War (1950-53).

Defection through the inter-Korean border is not unprecedented, but is nearly impossible with nearly 70 percent of some 1.8 million troops on both sides standing guard within a radius of a few kilometers from the border.

Relations between the divided Koreas significantly warmed up following a historic meeting of their leaders in the North Korean capital in 2000.

The two, however, still remain technically in a state of war as the Korean War ended with an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty.

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DPRK tightening up Chinese border or vice versa?

Monday, August 21st, 2006

From the Joon Ang Daily:

Ties sour at North’s China border

Signs of discontent between those two closest of allies, China and North Korea, have begun to appear. Last month, despite Chinese urging, North Korea fired off a test salvo of seven missiles. Although the tests were generally considered to be a bid for international attention, they provided Japan with more domestic ammunition to change its constitutional bar on warfare as an instrument of national policy, a development China does not see as in its interests.

Some suggestions of those cooling ties can be seen in this Chinese border city. Recently, about 40 North Korean women were waiting in front of the customs office in preparation for returning to North Korea. One of the women said Chinese authorities had order the women, who had worked at a stuffed-toy factory, out of the country.

“We received a three-year approval originally to work there, but after less than a year we are going back,” the woman said. Customs officials said the women were working illegally, but other people here were skeptical. One noted that many Russians have no problems because of a lack of work papers. “When relations between China and North Korea were good, there were no problems,” one said. “These incidents are in line with the cooling ties in light of the North Korean missile launch.”

In all, about 300 North Koreans have been told to leave Dandung for their homeland. The head of a trading company here, who has been dealing with North Korea for 10 years, said another 300 North Koreans will be sent home from Dandung within a month.

A source in Beijing said the Labor Ministry headquarters told its subordinate offices earlier this month not to issue work permits to North Koreans who carry passports and visas issued to government officials. “In the past, these people were allowed to work, and given the fact that they already have a visa, this measure is probably a retaliatory move by Beijing,” this source said.

A South Korean trader with ties to the North and China said that custom checks at the border have been increased, resulting in longer delays in shipping goods. The Dandung Customs Office said concerns about drug trafficking was the reason for stepped-up measures, an explanation that some residents here say has no precedent.  

From the Daily NK:
8/17/2006

National Defense Commission’s Inspection Task Force Dispatched to Sino-Korean Border
By Kim Young Jin, Yanji of China
 
An inspection task force under the National Defense Commission (NDC) is deployed on the Sino-Korean border in order to review border security and to check defection from North Korea to China.

Kim Choon Il (a false name), a 36-year-old defector living in South Korea since 2003, said on Wednesday that in a telephone conversation with his family in North Korea on Tuesday, he was told that NDC’s inspection team came to the border area since the end of last July and inspection became much tighter.

Kim also said that the inspection task force, cooperating with local Workers’ Party office, National Security Agency, and police, blocked the Sino-Korean border.

This inspection task force is under the control of the highest state organ NDC, which surpasses the power of other previous inspection squads organized under the lesser authority.

Since the task force is directly responsible to Kim Jong Il, it is expected that the task force is granted some specific inspection guideline.

The NDC inspection squad was deployed after the UN resolution on North Korean missile crisis was passed. Also it was immediately after a flood killed thousands and created hundreds of thousands victims who lost their homes.

Dispatch of the inspection team is a measure against infiltration of outside ideology and culture and also to prevent massive defection due to recent internal and external crises.

North Korean authority sent a party inspection team to the border area in 1992 after China and South Korea normalized diplomatic relationship. Also, as the number of defectors increased since then, another inspection team under the combined control of five departments (army, security agency, prosecutor’s office, police and party) was sent.

NDC’s dispatch of an inspection task force represents the highest authority’s distrust of previous inspection teams’ activities. It’s been pointed out that due to corruption and bribery previous inspection squads were unable to root out crimes.

According to inside sources, NDC inspection task force’s primary mission is to thwart defection, leak of documents, infiltration of outsiders, guns trafficking and any other anti-socialist activities. It is confirmed that in Sino-Korean border area not only drug and counterfeit dollar bills but also guns and ammunition are smuggled.

The informant also reported that it is ordered illegal defectors and their families to be deported, and infiltrators from outside and missionaries to be executed publicly.

According to Han, a defector living in Inchon, South Korea, who is aiding North Korean refugee in China, among those who suffered flood, an increased number of them wants to escape to China or South Korea.

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Posted in Arduous March, China, Communications, Emigration, Illicit activities, International trade, National Defense Commission, Religion, Transportation | Comments Closed

China eyes Mt. Pektu II

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

From the Donga:

China Fencing Border With N. Korea
8/12/2006

It was confirmed on August 11 that China has been building wires along its border with North Korea, around the source of the Duman River near Mt. Baekdu.

Speculations are that the wires are meant to prevent defection of North Koreans to China, or that they are aimed at drawing a clear Sino-Korea borderline in an apparent attempt to incorporate an ancient Korean kingdom into a Chinese historical timeline.

The border between North Korea and China has so far been marked with 21 boundary stones from Mt. Baekdu to the source of the Duman River.

The Chinese government was alleged to have kept fencing since the end of 2004 to prevent North Korean residents from defecting to China, but this is the first confirmation that the wires are actually in place near the mountain and the upper Duman River.

The wires are a series of 1.5 to 1.7 meters high and two to three meters wide T-shaped concrete pillars, similar to those along the Military Demarcation Line on the Korean peninsular.

Beijing reportedly claimed that the fence is there to stop North Korean defection. One Chinese source said that the Chinese government has set up wires near Mt. Baekdu around the Duman this summer and that it plans to extend them to Samhap and Yenbien where many North Korean defectors stay.

However, some raise doubts that the construction work is part of Chinese efforts to incorporate Korea’s ancient history into its own.

Given that Beijing fears that the Sino-DPRK border area will be absorbed into Korean influence in the process toward unification of the two Koreas, the world’s most populous country’s recent move could be interpreted as part of its “historic reorganization.”

Furthermore, Beijing tried to have Mt. Baekdu registered in UNESCO World Heritage and World Geopark, while developing its tourist programs near Mt. Baekdu.

Professor Kim Woo-jun at the Institute of East and West Studies said that China is set to make a clear-cut borderline on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of China’s Northeast Project ending next year. He went on to say that the wires are built up for both blocking defection and securing its sovereignty.

This view is widely held as many North Koreans pass the areas near Mt. Baekdu and the Duman River to flee their country.

Furthermore, the border fencing has something to do with the recent Sino-DPRK relations estranged by Pyongyang’s missile tests.

Professor Kim Tae-ho of the Hallym Institute of Advanced International Studies said that the change in the bilateral ties is transforming the concept on the areas between North Korea and China from “the frontier” to the “national border.” He also said that after the second North Korean nuclear crisis in October 2002, armed police border patrols were replaced with a standing army in September 2003.

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Lankov on DPRK/ROK/PRC relations

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

From the Korea Times:

Elusive Welcome Mat
By Andrei Lankov
 
It is believed that some 40,000 to 80,000 North Koreans live in Northeast China, earning money through unskilled work, or living with their Chinese partners. Some five years ago, their number was much greater _ perhaps, up to 250,000.

At first sight, defection to South Korea would be the most logical next step for these people. After all, the South Korean Constitution does not recognize the existence of North Korean state, thus every North Korean is, by definition, a citizen of the Republic of Korea (ROK), eligible to special rights and protection. However, such defections are rare _ only a few thousand North Koreans have move to the South over the last few years. Why?

The major reason is the unwillingness of the South Korean government to help refugees gain safe conduct to Korea. When a refugee manages to contact the South Korean embassy or consulate in China, he or she does not find support there. Those who have relatives in the South can use the expensive services of people smugglers (at least, $5,000 up front), but the majority have no chance to get to the South without some official support _ and this support is not forthcoming.

Among those who have been denied assistance there have even been some who would have been seen as god-given propaganda gifts 10 or 15 years ago. In 1996, for example, the South Korean Embassy in Beijing was visited by a family of six whose father, an exemplary “shock worker,’’ was once granted a rare honour _ to have his picture taken with Kim Il-sung himself. The diplomats advised the family that they were unable to do anything for them and wished the would-be defectors good luck. But they had no such luck _ they were arrested, deported back to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and severely punished. A 36-year-old military officer from an elite security unit fled to China in 1996. He spent 1996-2002 repeatedly applying for permission to move to the South. He contacted the South Korean Embassy a number of times but every time the diplomats advised him “be patient and wait.’’

A defector once told a South Korean journalist: “When I first fled the North I thought that it would be easy to go to South Korea. With the help of ethnic Koreans I arrived in Qingdao [China] in August 1996. But at the Korean Consulate, on which I had pinned all my hopes, [I] was told: ‘Under the present circumstances, this is difficult.’ [I felt like] the heavens collapsed.’’

Only those who represent an exceptional propaganda value (or have had access to very important intelligence) can count on official assistance these days.

Are you going to have an outburst of righteous disgust about “heartless Seoul bureaucrats?’’ Alas, it is not that easy. There are good reasons why the South Korean officials act in such a way…

First of all, the ROK does not wish to create problems with China, which carefully maintains its neutrality in the Korean conflict and does not wish to become a transition zone for crowds of refugees heading for Seoul. South Korean officials are also wary of ethnic Koreans from China who might try to pass themselves off as North Koreans to get access to ROK citizenship.

Admittedly, those refugees who manage to cross the border again, and reach the South Korean missions in South East Asia might count on better treatment and help. But the way across China is expensive and dangerous, especially since the Chinese police are on the lookout for likely refugees from North Korea.

Nevertheless, it appears that the major reason behind Seoul’s passivity is not a set of diplomatic calculations but a tacit understanding that refugees _ largely uneducated peasants _ have little hope of adjusting to South Korean society. Indeed, the defectors seldom fare well in the South _ in spite of the generous if recently curtailed aid packages. Encouraging defection would entail a great increase in spending on the already large aid programs.

In addition, Seoul does not want to destabilize its ex-enemy. A large-scale exodus of North Koreans to the South would likely cause a serious political crisis in Pyongyang. This is exactly the scenario that South Korean diplomacy strives to prevent: in recent years the notion of “German-type unification’’ is seen as a nightmare, to be avoided at all costs. Economic considerations play a major role, but one should not forget the remote but real chance that a cornered Pyongyang would start a new Korean War as a last resort.

Are these considerations sufficient enough to justify inaction? Frankly, I do not know. Alas, in real life people often have to make difficult choices between two evils, and attempts to present such choices in black-and-white are likely to lead to more tragedies. Seoul’s policy toward the North in the recent decade has been a basket of choices between bad and worse _ even though politicians were wise enough not to call a spade a spade, guarding the feelings of the majority who prefer to comfortably see the world in black and white. But that is another story…

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LiNK to expand services for DPRK emigrants.

Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

An American activist group on North Korean human rights plans to build a settlement facility for North Korean defectors to the United States, a revamped version of one in South Korea, a U.S. broadcaster reported Saturday.

“‘Hanawon’ is not exactly the best resettlement program out there. So…we’re going to set up a version of that here in the United States to help facilitate these North Koreans to resettle here in the U.S.,” Adrian Hong, head of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), said in an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia.

Hanawon, a facility set up near Seoul by the South Korean government in 1995, accommodates up to 100 North Korean refugees and provides housing and three months of training to help defectors adjust to life in capitalist South Korea.

Hong also revealed his group’s plan to increase the number of underground shelters his organization is running for North Korean defectors in China, North Korea’s neighboring country.

“We have 30 shelters in China…for North Korean refugees,” he said. “(We) decided to increase the size of the network by 50 percent, which means we are going to go up a lot.”

LiNK has been supplying the shelters with clothes, food and medical aid since December 2004, according to its officials.

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Price data

Monday, June 12th, 2006

From the Daily NK:

North Korean prices are continuing to rise.

At Sunam Jangmadang of Chongjin City, the price of rice is 1,200W/1kg, corn 300W, bottle of oil 2,000W, pork 2,500W and pants made from China 20,000W.

As it is spring, not only is it a time where the overall price of Jangmadang rice rises, but because the country is not distributing rations, the majority of people depend on the rice at Jangmadang. Also, rice sellers are watching this opening and are raising prices.

Lee who entered South Korea in 2003 says she has already sent money to her family by various means. The money sent through earnings from part-time jobs and resettlement money from the South Korean government, is becoming a lifeline for her family. Her families in North Korea depend on her to send money to live and get great relief from their daughters who live in South Korea.

Chinese 100yuan is 34,000won at Jangmadangi

Lee’s family who support their living by selling goods made from China, ceased trade because of soaring prices and control of Jangmadang by authorities.

Lee added, as it became harvest season and authorities restrained Jangmadang operations, there was even an incident last May at Chongjin where a lot of children were hospitalized after eating sweets and medicines made from China, and instruction was made in regards to strengthening the regulation of Chinese goods.

However, Chinese goods are in the majority and controlling Chinese commodities in North Korea is ‘shading the sun with the palm of your hand.’ Lee conveyed that to regulate the problem, police officers confiscate Chinese goods such as alcohol and cigarettes, and that oppression is worsening.

According to Lee, at present in Chongjin, Chinese 100yuan is 34,000 won for North Korean money. If this is converted to dollars, $1 calculates approximately 2,750won.

In March, the exchange rate at Musan Jangmadang was 100yuan to 37,125 won North Korean currency, in dollars $1 for 2,970won. The exchange rate for Yuan has decreased since March from roughly 100yuan to about 3,000won.

Local factory workers, majority mobilized to the village

The local industrial factory Lee’s brother works for in Chongjin, has recently closed factory doors and sends workers to the village. Compared to reports of North Korean publicity and media of central businesses in production at Pyongyang, standards of local industries are extremely inferior.

The reason, local industries could not extricate the aftereffects of acute shortages in equipment and materials following the economic breakdown in the mid-90’s.

According to defector of Chongjin, person ‘A’ laments “Recovery in factories is difficult as electric machines and electric lines are stolen and sold. Factories themselves want restoration but money is required, and isn’t it that there is no where money can appear.”

The most urgent is the problem of electricity. Most recently, as it is the farming season, all the electricity is mobilized for the water meter operations, with electricity servicing the villages approximately 10hours daily. However, as electricity is supplied to the villages, meanwhile the city is locked in darkness.

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Posted in China, Emigration, Fiscal & monetary policy, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), International trade, Price liberalization, South Korea | Comments Closed

US accepting more DPRK immigrants

Friday, June 2nd, 2006

From the Daily NK, Pastor Chun Ki Won, who was imprisoned in China briefly for aiding DPRK defectors, gives an update on the second group of defectors (who climbed the wall between the South Korean and American Embassies in Beijing) and a third group, which is new:

  • Refugee status has already been granted to the seven in the US compound.
  • The pastor wants the refugees to remain unpoliticized and simply allowed to resettle in the US among the large network of Korean immigrants that are eager to help them.
  • Apparently, getting refugee status for the second and third group was much easier than for the first.
  • From the interview: In what ways are defectors selected to try exile to the U.S? There are cases where defectors send personal requests seeking help through the internet, and cases where we get contacts through missionaries. In the 1st round of exiles, three people were from facilities under our care, whereas the others were selected by email. Requirements in the selection ruling basically include people with financial difficulties, women experiencing hardship from having been sold, and children are given preference. Also, if in the case financial problems are resolved, a broker is introduced and guidance to an exile route is given.

 

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‘Yellow Spring’ in North Korea…Similiar To The Food Shortage in 1998

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Daily NK
Kim Young Jin
5/28/2006

North Korea is facing the hardest “yellow spring” right now. ‘Yellow Spring’ means the hardest time of the year in North Korea. “Yellow spring” originates from how the sky looks yellow because of starvation.

Mr. Lee Hyun Soo (46) who crossed the Tumen River on 15 May said, “It is hard to endure day by day”.

Mr. Lee, head of a household of four said, “Rumors of people going to China and South Korea go around. I tried not to cross the border, but I did because of my family members who are starving”. He complained, “The government have been acting like they would give us food for a long time, but they deceived us”.

Recently, North Koreans who cannot make their ends meet like Mr. Lee started to cross the Tumen River again. The reporter met 5 North Koreans including Mr. Lee. They met with the reporter at a secret place in Yanji, and expressed strong discontents about the situation of food shortage in North Korea and the policy regarding food distribution system.

Mr. Choi Young Nam (37) said, “I have been waiting since the 1st of April. I know that there are even less rice in spring, so where would the rice come from? They cannot deceive us like this”. Mr. Choi said. “In January and February, rice for 2~3 days were given to the old and supporting families. After that, we bought the rice at Jangmadang price at the distribution center”.

The official price of rice is 45won($0.015) for rice and 25won($0.0083) for corn. After North Korea resumed its food distribution system, the government regulated the rice transaction at Jangmadang while selling rice at 950 won($0.32) and corn at 350 won($0.12), which is same as Jangmadang price. Recently, price at Jangmadang went over 1300 won($0.433) and the price at distribution center went up accordingly.
“Similar To The Situation At The End Of Food Shortage In 1998”

They say, “Family of those who work at the government, police and national security agency store up food for one year. People who work at powerful organizations such as Office #5 (foreign currency earning office under office #39 under the Party, loocated at each city and province) receive food, but other workplaces do not distribute food anymore”.

After the 7.1 Economic Management Improvement Measure in 2002, policy which orders each organization to provide for their workers has been adopted; workplaces with power can feed the workers, while poor factories cannot. People generally have an attitude that does not care if others can eat or not.

Mr. Park who was involved in ‘suitcase business’ with Chinese said, “Everyone is involved in trade, and I could not even break even because I could not sell the goods at fair price”.

Mr. Park who is employed at a steel factory in Hoeryong has three family members to support. Mr. Park crossed theTumen River to earn money by farming in China, because it seemed hopeless and difficult to live in North Korea. Following is what Mr. Park said.

“The situation is similar to the situation at the end of food shortage in 1998. The number of people who come to China will increase soon. People at the border area know that why they are so poor because they are involved in trade with Chineses. All they have in their heart is anger”.

“Living By Grassroots and Porridge, The Old and The Sick Are Dying Of Starvation”

Mr. Hyun Joo Hoon (50) who sold goods in Pyongan and Hwanghae Province says, “People in Pyongan Province are worse off than those in border area”.

People in Pyongan Province and at border area both do not receive food from distribution system, but people in provinces without the capital to start business began to eat grassroots and porridge for meals. Mr. Hyun said, “I ate corn porridge because I only received five day worth of food”. Mr. Hyun said, he had seen the sick and the old dying of starvation at Soonchun and Dukchun in South Pyongan Province.

Mr. Hyun said, “It is because the government regulated the outflow of food to other provinces as the government ordered the regional governments to distribute food on their own”. In the fall of last year, North Korean government has regulated the outflow of food by placing posts at highways connecting different cities and districts.

Mr. Lee added, “People in the inner provinces believe the propaganda of the North Korean government that the reason for the poverty is the economic sanction by imperialists, even when they are dying. Unless their thoughts change, they cannot even resist”.

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Posted in Agriculture, Black markets, China, Economic reform, Emigration, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Price liberalization | Comments Closed

US admits first north korean refugees

Sunday, May 7th, 2006

From the Washington Post:

Senator Sam Brownback has announced the arrival in the US of the first North Korean refugees admitted to the US under the North Korean Freedom Act. 

The six person group, including four women who say they were victims of sexual slavery or forced marriages, came from an unnamed south east Asian nation (Vietnam, Laos, Thialind, Cambodia).

Jay Lefkowitz, U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights, “We will press to make it clear to our friends and allies in the region that we are prepared to accept North Korean refugees for resettlement here.”

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‘Time’ covers North Korean emigration

Sunday, April 30th, 2006

Time Magazine covers the touching story of several North Korean emigrants and the network of activists that assist in their transportation to South Korea.

The ringleader: Rev. Tim Peters, a soft-spoken evangelical Christian pastor from Benton Harbor, Michigan, who runs the Seoul-based charity Helping Hands Korea. More than any other Westerner, Peters has become the public face of a network of activists, many motivated by their Christian faith, who try against formidable odds to bring North Koreans to Seoul.

Peters and others in the network do not shrink from the comparison to the Underground Railroad of the U.S. Civil War era that brought African-American slaves from the South to freedom in the North. They embrace the comparison.

North Korea and China—actively seek to put the Seoul Train, as it has been called, out of business. For the past two years, the Chinese have conducted a concerted “strike hard” operation to round up and repatriate North Koreans who are in China illegally. Beijing is determined to maintain stability in the rustbelt northeast of China. The government seeks to break up the networks that help refugees and shut down the safe houses that shelter them—lest too much success draw more. North Korean security agents inside China assist that effort. The result, says Peters, “is that the whole paradigm of our operations has been changed.” Refugees now avoid cities in the northeast of China, hiding instead in forest caves they have dug out for themselves.

TIME has learned that late last summer, Chinese authorities arrested an American who aids North Korean refugees inside China. He remains jailed in the northeastern city of Yanji, not far from the North Korean border. (The American in question is awaiting sentence and his family has asked TIME to withhold his name and details of his case.)

Last year, the South Korean government slashed in half the cash portion of the subsidy it used to pay refugees who make it to the South from 6 million won ($6,320) to 3 million ($3,160). The defectors often used the money they were given to help finance efforts to get their relatives out—typically by paying middlemen who are in the people-smuggling business for profit, but sometimes donating to Christian groups such as Helping Hands. The reduction in funds, coupled with the Chinese crackdown, has had an impact. The number of refugees making it out of China to South Korea fell to 1,217 last year, according to the South Korean government, down from a record 1,894 in 2004.

Though Bush called for $24 million a year to accept refugees from North Korea and broadcast news and information there, Congress has yet to appropriate any funding to carry out the policies.

Peters formed Helping Hands Korea in 1996, and within just two years, as refugees tried to escape the famine, the beginnings of the underground railroad took shape. “We were overwhelmed,” he says now. That’s when the organization’s mission became more focused: helping North Koreans in crisis, people who really needed help getting to freedom.”

Many women are “sold off” into marriage by one of the criminal gangs in the northeast of China that prey upon refugees. China’s one-child policy, and the intense cultural preference for sons rather than daughters, has left the country with a huge number of single men.

Refugees say that the most common way to get across the 1,400-km border between North Korea and China is to bribe a border guard on the Korean side. One North Korean woman, Park Myong Ja, who got to Seoul in 2004, told TIME it cost her just “100 [Chinese] yuan,” or $12.50 to cross into China. Kim, however, relied on a friend who lived near the border and watched each night the routes patrolled by the guards. “You knew where they were going to be—and where they weren’t going to be, and when,” Kim says. “My friend guided me.”

Some Korenas get fake Chinese identity cards. They can pay brokers 2,000 yuan ($250).

Peters raised $1,500 and hired four people for the operation to bring one North Korean through Laos to Cambodia, where she flew to Seoul.

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