Sexual violence ‘part of ordinary life’ in North Korea, say rights investigators

Distressing accounts by North Korean women suggest sexual and gender-based violence in the secluded nation is endemic, a report by Human Rights Watch said.

Investigators interviewed more than 100 North Koreans who had left the country, including more than 50 who left since 2011. They described unwanted sexual contact and violence as “so common that it has come to be accepted as part of ordinary life”.

In a series of testimonies, women such as Oh Jung-hee speak of powerlessness at the hands of party officials, police, prosecutors and soldiers.

The women’s accounts paint a picture of sexual abuse – including rape – so widespread that many of those interviewed did not understand that coercive sex should not be an almost everyday occurrence, said one investigator.

“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,” Ms Oh, a former trader in her 40s, told HRW.

“What can we do? They consider us toys... we are at the mercy of men.”

In an authoritarian country such as North Korea where state surveillance is omnipresent, bringing officials to justice is no easy task for a woman.

Former farmer Park Younghee fled the country in 2011 before being returned by the secret police and put under police jurisdiction.

During her pre-trial detention, she was sexually abused by the officer in charge of her questioning.

“My life was in his hands, so I did everything he wanted and told him everything he asked,” she said.

“How could I do anything else? Everything we do in North Korea can be considered illegal, so everything can depend on the perception or attitude of who is looking into your life.”

The women reported abuse and rape by police officers, prison guards and officials in charge of the private markets, who were said to exact bribes in the form of sexual favours.

“Ironically, many of the women who are at the centre of the economic opening that [North Korean leader] Kim [Jong-un] says he cares about are the most at risk,” HRW’s executive director Kenneth Roth said.

Because of social stigma, many women never discuss the abuse, the women said.

“I was ashamed and scared,” one rape victim told HRW investigators. “Everybody would have blamed me.”