A look into North Korea’s « Me Too » as women defectors describe sexual abuse at the hands of men in power
AS a deeply militarised state, North Korea has long prided itself as a disciplinarian country, but the testimonials of women who defected after years of sexual abuse at the hands of men in power reveal a grim side to the hermit kingdom.
Since taking power in 2011, the country’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un has relaxed rules on trading for regular civilians, but a substantial number of women involved in economic activity has described sexual abuse, molest, rape and other forms of coercion as a norm in the reclusive state.
Oh Jung Hee is a former trader from Ryanggang province, told Human Rights Watch that up to 2014 when she left the country, guards would make their rounds at the market in Hyesan city where she sold textiles to demand bribes, some of which involved forced sexual acts and intercourse.
“I was a victim many times… On the days they felt like it, market guards or police officials could ask me to follow them to an empty room outside the market, or some other place they’d pick,”
“What can we do? They consider us [sex] toys… We [women] are at the mercy of men. Now, women cannot survive without having men with power near them.”
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Jung Hee, who is now in her forties said she was powerless to resist or report these abuses as nothing would have prevented these assaults. Instead, she had to be vigilant in avoiding unwanted situations by moving away or hiding.
Her testimony was part of a recently released report by Human Rights Watch, which is based on interviews with 54 North Koreans who fled the country after 2011. Eight former North Korean officials who defected also gave their accounts of sexual abuse by men in official positions of power.
