I am a North Korean woman refugee in China. My name is Han Myong-suk (an alias) and I was born in 1975 in North Korea, making me 29 years old in 2005. My father was a military officer. I finished a 2 year-course commercial college in North Korea. I had been a factory worker for about 2 years when I defected to China for freedom and food in February 1998. On arrival in China, I was picked up by a Chinese gang of human traffickers and sold to a Chinese farmer in Heilungjang Province in China. I was at fifth month of pregnancy when I was arrested at home and repatriated to North Korea by the Chinese police in October in the same year (1998).
During detention in North Korea, I defied the order to abort the fetus the prison authorities contemptuously called a ‘Chinese chink’ and was badly beaten and kicked at my belly by a guard. His name is Hwang Myong-dong. My sister was with me at that time. Pain continued but I did not know that my unborn child was killed by his kicking. About a week later, I was taken to a clinic and in a most blunt manner, they extracted the dead child from my body. The physical injuries sustained at that time were such that I became very weak and I am no longer able to be pregnant again.
After the abortion when I was still bleeding, I was sent to a labor camp where I was subject to all kinds of degrading and inhumane hard labor. I was sentenced to serve 3-year prison term for reason of protest to the police when they killed my baby. In the prison, I was engaged in producing uniforms and boots for the North Korean policemen. When we walked in the vegetable farm of the prison, we did our best to steal some vegetable leaves and hide it in the clothes for eating them raw later. We struggled to pick up the remains of apples eaten and thrown by guards. The condition of the prison was such that I would have not survived the 3-year prison term if I were not released after one year and six months under a special amnesty. After one year in the prison, I was sent to a tuberculosis ward of another prison No. 20. where I saw dead prisoners almost daily.
I defected to China for the second time in March 2002 and am in hiding suffering from health problems from the injuries sustained in North Korea. My only hope today is to seek freedom outside China. Please help! (This woman was helped by HHK to a safe haven in a third country in December of 2005.)
North Korean mother endured a forced abortion
I am a North Korean woman refugee in China. My name is Han Myong-suk (an alias) and I was born in 1975 in North Korea, making me 29 years old in 2005. My father was a military officer. I finished a 2 year-course commercial college in North Korea. I had been a factory worker for about 2 years when I defected to China for freedom and food in February 1998. On arrival in China, I was picked up by a Chinese gang of human traffickers and sold to a Chinese farmer in Heilungjang Province in China. I was at fifth month of pregnancy when I was arrested at home and repatriated to North Korea by the Chinese police in October in the same year (1998).
During detention in North Korea, I defied the order to abort the fetus the prison authorities contemptuously called a ‘Chinese chink’ and was badly beaten and kicked at my belly by a guard. His name is Hwang Myong-dong. My sister was with me at that time. Pain continued but I did not know that my unborn child was killed by his kicking. About a week later, I was taken to a clinic and in a most blunt manner, they extracted the dead child from my body. The physical injuries sustained at that time were such that I became very weak and I am no longer able to be pregnant again.
After the abortion when I was still bleeding, I was sent to a labor camp where I was subject to all kinds of degrading and inhumane hard labor. I was sentenced to serve 3-year prison term for reason of protest to the police when they killed my baby. In the prison, I was engaged in producing uniforms and boots for the North Korean policemen. When we walked in the vegetable farm of the prison, we did our best to steal some vegetable leaves and hide it in the clothes for eating them raw later. We struggled to pick up the remains of apples eaten and thrown by guards. The condition of the prison was such that I would have not survived the 3-year prison term if I were not released after one year and six months under a special amnesty. After one year in the prison, I was sent to a tuberculosis ward of another prison No. 20. where I saw dead prisoners almost daily.
I defected to China for the second time in March 2002 and am in hiding suffering from health problems from the injuries sustained in North Korea. My only hope today is to seek freedom outside China. Please help! (This woman was helped by HHK to a safe haven in a third country in December of 2005.)