In-sook went into hiding with her daughter as soon as the pandemic hit China in 2020. The young woman had illegally entered the country as she fled across the border from North Korea.
Unable to feed her child, she turned in desperation to a church for refuge, and then to Helping Hands Korea , a Seoul-based group who provide North Koreans with escape routes to safety. According to the UN’s envoy on human rights in North Korea, Elizabeth Salmon, and activist groups, up to 2000 defectors may currently be languishing in Chinese detention centres in the country’s north-east. If forcibly repatriated, they face torture and abuse, and even death.The pandemic offered temporary reprieve as North Korea further sealed itself off from the world to keep the virus out.
“North Korea is known for operating one of the world’s most notorious political prison camps,” he added, warning that returnees were at risk of dying from malnutrition, disease or execution, and faced sexual assault, forced abortion and forced labour.