Contact Admin. Oh Jung Hee is a former trader in her forties from Ryanggang province. She sold clothes to market stalls in Hyesan city and was involved in the distribution of textiles in her province. She said that up until she left the country in , guards would regularly pass by the market to demand bribes, sometimes in the form of coerced sexual acts or intercourse.
She told Human Rights Watch:. She said she had no power to resist or report these abuses. She said it never occurred to her that anything could be done to stop these assaults except trying to avoid such situations by moving away or being quiet in order to not be noticed.
North Korean officials commit sexual violence with little concern for the consequences. The government fails to investigate and prosecute complaints, or to provide protection and services to victims, and even asserts that the country is implausibly free of sexism or sexual violence. Park Young Hee, a former farmer in her forties also from Ryanggang province who left North Korea for the second time in , was forced back to North Korea from China in the spring of after her first attempt to flee.
She said, after being released by the secret police bowiseong and put under the jurisdiction of the police, the officer in charge of questioning her in the police pre-trial detention facility kuryujang near Musan city in North Hamgyong province touched her body underneath her clothes and penetrated her several times with his fingers.
She said he asked her repeatedly about the sexual relations she had with the Chinese man to whom she had been sold to while in China. Park Young Hee said she never told anybody about the abuse because she did not think it was unusual, and because she feared the authorities and did not believe anyone would help. While sexual and gender-based violence is of concern everywhere, growing evidence suggests it is endemic in North Korea.
