Here is another article about the modern day comfort women that few in South Korea seem to care about:
North Korean women experience high levels of sexual violence in their country and in China, say women who have defected. File Photo by Andrew Wong/UPI
A defector who says she was raped in a North Korean prison camp and was a victim of human trafficking in China said most North Korean women who work with brokers have experienced some form of rape.
May Joo, 37, who resettled in the United States after leaving North Korea in 2005, told UPI on Monday that even rape victims do not know the act is categorically a crime.
“That’s because [North Koreans] do not have a concept of human rights,” Joo said. “The violation of women’s rights, they don’t know what that is.
“Rape victims just think, ‘Well, I guess that happened.’ It never occurs to them to speak up, or seek justice.”
In the era of a global #MeToo movement, where women are increasingly vocalizing their anger and naming perpetrators of sexual abuse, the lack of rights protection for North Korean women is a reminder the Kim Jong Unregime — which stunned the world by offering to talk with U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in — has yet to address what may be the most pressing issue in the country.
Yoonseo Lee, 32, whose hometown is in North Korea’s South Hwanghae Province, said sexual violence is a serious problem in North Korea, but incidents of rape are more common in China.
“Getting raped is preferable to arrest in China,” said Lee, who resettled in South Korea. “Because the minute you alert the authorities, you are arrested.” [UPI]
The male North Korean soldier that defected last month across the DMZ is actually a very small minority of the demographic that composes North Korean defectors. The vast majority of the defectors are actually women:
North Korean women dressed in traditional dresses, leave the restaurant they work at and head to the North Korean embassy in Beijing, on December 17, 2006. Women participate in North Korea’s unofficial economy in at higher rates and the country’s gray markets have continued to proliferate. UPI Photo/Stephen Shaver
The backward North Korean economy produces very little that the world wants. But Big Brother China, however, is hungry for the two things Pyongyang does have in relative abundance: coal and women. The coal keeps the fires burning in energy-poor China. The women help to meet the shortage of brides in China’s male-dominated society.
China’s one-child policy has devastated the female population. Over the past three-and-a-half decades that the policy has been in place, tens of millions of girls have disappeared from the population. They were killed in utero by sex-selection abortions, at birth by female infanticide, or after birth by simple neglect. (……)
One place that Chinese men look for brides is the other side of the Yalu River, for in North Korea there are lots of hungry young women longing for a better life. The population of Kim Jong Un’s socialist paradise subsists in near famine conditions, with two in five North Koreans undernourished and more than two-thirds on food aid. [Fox News]
You can read more at the link, but the 85% number discussed in the article has actually increased from the 80% number in 2015.
Besides the sex industry in China, the other factor that plays into this is that most of the men in North Korea are also tied up working in state owned factories or the military. This leaves the women to often be the ones working in the various markets that have sprang up around North Korea. The women working in the markets develop contacts with businessmen bringing goods in from China. This makes the women thus more susceptible to seeking to cross the border themselves.
Of further interest is that many of the North Korean refugees when they do come to South Korea end up becoming part of the sex industry in that country as well.
It seems to me that if foreign players are banned in the Women’s Korean Basketball League it may give Korean women more playing time, but they will lose the benefit of playing against top foreign talent. This could ultimately cause a reduction in competitiveness for Korean women when competing in international basketball competitions:
KEB Hanabank player Hazmon Gwathmey, left, gives a high-five to Isabelle Harrison. / Courtesy of WKBL
Coaches from the six teams of the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL) want to gradually abolish the policy allowing foreign players in the league.
Each team was allowed two foreign players, but only one could play until the league opted for a new policy allowing two foreign players to play simultaneously in the third quarter for the upcoming season.
The revised policy aimed to increase the league’s average score.
But some teams were concerned that they would be at a disadvantage if a foreign player was injured or if they had only one foreign player.
Yongin Samsung Blue Minx lost to KB Stars on Nov.18, without leading scorer Alyssa Thomas, while KB’s Damiris Dantas finished with a game high 28 points and 14 rebounds.
“At the coaches meeting, we talked about discarding the policy about foreigners,” said KEB Hanabank coach Lee Hwan-woo. “We can give Korean players more opportunity to play and use the budget used for foreign players to expand the base of women’s basketball.”
“We do not have a Korean ‘big man’ because we do not have many good Korean players,” said We Seong-woo, a coach form Woori Bank Wibee. “I think it would be right to diminish the proportion of foreigner players slowly and then abolishing the policy.” [Korea Times]
South Korean singer and actress Son Dam-bi poses for the camera during a publicity event for a cable channel program in Seoul on Oct. 27, 2017. (Yonhap)
Female soldiers salute the national flag during a ceremony in Seoul on Sept. 6, 2017, to mark 67th anniversary of the establishment of South Korea’s Women’s Army Corps. (Yonhap)
Actress Gong Seung-yeon poses ahead of an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on June 30, 2017, Gong stars in tvN’s sci-fi drama “Circle: Two Worlds Connected.” (Yonhap)
This is a horrible experience this Korean mother and daughter just went through:
Surveillance video shows the suspects navy blue BMW 4-door sedan in the parking of the Best Western Hotel in Placentia. (Photo courtesy of Placenita Police Department)
Two women visiting from Korea were robbed and one was beaten unconscious in the parking lot of a Placentia hotel on Friday, June 16, authorities said.
Placentia police officers were dispatched to the Best Western motel, 118 E. Orangethorpe Ave., about 9:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they found a 55-year-old woman on the ground with signs of trauma and a 25-year-old woman unharmed. The women were a mother and daughter visiting from Korea, according to Sgt. Bryce Angel of the Placentia Police Department.
When the two women arrived at their hotel, a navy blue 4-door sedan parked next to their car. Two men got out of the car and one person stayed behind the wheel, Angel said. One man attempted to grab the mother’s purse, which she had slung over her shoulder. The man tried to violently rip the purse from her, but the woman put up a struggle.
As they wrestled over the purse, the other man pointed a handgun at the woman. The suspects pushed the older woman to the ground and were able to get the purse away from her, Angel said.
The suspects continued to punch and kick the victim, who was lying on the ground, until she lost consciousness. The daughter was not physically harmed, Angel said. [OC Register]
You can read more at the link as well as watch video about this assault at this link.
