“We beg you to help us. We risked our lives to cross the border. We want to go to the South Korean land as quickly as possible.”
The nine North Korean defectors held in the Thailand Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok made this plea to Rev. Kim Seong-eun (52, representative of Caleb Mission) in a phone call on September 26. They appealed to be rescued from detention and sent to South Korea.
On the 26th, Rev. Kim presented to the media for the first time, a dozen or so photos and videos showing the life of North Koreans imprisoned in Thailand’s IDC. Ms. Seo’s story is one of suffering: after crossing the Tumen River, she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution, and after some time was sold to a farm in China. Married to a Korean resident of China, she gave birth to Jisu, but the conditions of poverty and her husband’s violence led her to run away with her baby to the city. She managed to earn a living through “nude video chatting” in Shenyang and other places. Eventually she met Rev. Kim in Laos and succeeded in entering Thailand at the end of August this year, but was caught by the Thai immigration authorities.
According to Rev. Kim, as many as 200~300 women in Shenyang alone are, like Ms. Seo, North Korean defectors who are surviving by means of prostitution. He reported that some ethnic Korean men purchase North Korean women defectors as wives, then force them to engage in prostitution and treat them like slaves.
Rev. Kim’s dangerous ministry to help North Korean defectors immigrate to South Korea started in January 2000, when he was in China on a short-term mission project and came face to face with the pitiful reality of North Korean defectors living there. Up to now more than 500 defectors have received his help.
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Full Story in Korean:
한국 가려 목숨 걸었는데… 탈북민 9명 한달째 태국 철창에: 하반신 마비 여성·아동 두명 포함 방콕 이민국 수용소에“한국 가고 싶습네다” 호소