북한 여성인권 인터뷰 - #1 김유아 (장마당에서 장사하는 북한 여성들의 인권침해) | North Korean Women’s Voices #1 Kim Yoo-ah

Video Description

2025년 탈북민 인터뷰에서는 북한의 여성인권에 대한 이야기를 전합니다. 김유아님은 장마당에서 장사하는 북한 여성들의 인권침해에 대해 이야기 합니다. ※ 이 영상은 대만 민주주의 재단의 후원으로 제작되었습니다. North Korean Women’s Voices: Kim Yoo-ah Interview #1 Born in Samjiyeon, Ryanggang Province, near the Chinese border, Kim Yoo-ah is a North Korean defector who endured systemic repression, extreme poverty, and gender-based exploitation under the regime. She worked at the Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il Research Center before escaping to South Korea in 2017 after multiple failed attempts. In this interview conducted by PSCORE, Kim Yoo-ah shares her experiences, from chronic food shortages and famine to cross-border smuggling, corruption, forced confessions, and the pervasive sexual exploitation of women. Her testimony provides a firsthand look at life under one of the world’s most oppressive regimes and the struggle to survive in a society where human rights are absent. Website: http://pscore.org Instagram: /pscorekorea Facebook: /pscorekorea ※ This video was made possible thanks to the TAIWAN FOUNDATION for DEMOCRACY To support North Korean defectors, you can donate here: http://pscore.org/donate/ =============================== The interview presents the testimony of Kim Yoo-ah, a North Korean defector who recounts her experiences of systemic repression, economic deprivation, and gender-based exploitation under the North Korean regime. Her account provides insight into how structural violence, state propaganda, and poverty intersect to violate fundamental human rights, particularly for women and children. Kim was born in Samjiyeon, Ryanggang Province, near the Chinese border. Before her defection, she worked at the Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il Research Center, a state propaganda institution promoting loyalty to the regime. Her early employment within the ideological apparatus reveals the pervasive reach of political indoctrination and the lack of free choice in professional life. Kim defected to South Korea in 2017, after several failed attempts beginning in 2013. During the interview, she describes chronic food shortages and the collapse of the state welfare system. Hunger and scarcity compelled her to engage in informal markets and small-scale trading from the age of 13, defying state restrictions on child labor and economic activity. The interview recounts harrowing scenes from the Arduous March famine, including the starvation of her grandmother, whose death symbolized the normalization of human suffering. Kim recalls that starvation became an “everyday sight,” underscoring the population’s desensitization to death. From age 16, she participated in cross-border smuggling between North Korea and China as a survival strategy. Her testimony highlights how state corruption and militarized borders created a climate of fear and bribery. Smuggling was not a criminal act of greed but a response to structural deprivation. She explains that such activities were only possible through systematic bribery of border guards, prosecutors, and secret police. When apprehended by authorities at age 16, she endured physical assault, forced confessions, and coercive “self-criticism” sessions, practices that constitute cruel and degrading treatment under international human rights law. Kim recounts being ambushed by North Korean police and beaten by a police chief upon arrest. She was forced to write a ten-page confession under duress, punished for smuggling rice “because I was hungry.” Such episodes illustrate the absence of due process and the use of arbitrary detention to reinforce ideological control. Her parents were later summoned and publicly humiliated by local Party officials, reflecting the regime’s use of collective punishment and social shaming as disciplinary tools. Kim exposes pervasive sexual harassment and coercion of women by border guards, prosecutors, and security agents. Women smugglers, she explains, were required to pay “protection fees” or offer sexual favors in exchange for safe passage. She terms these transactions a form of kababi — unofficial bribes in cash or kind — often paid in rice or Chinese yuan. Her remarks confirm that women’s bodies are commodified within North Korea’s shadow economy, where survival is contingent on submission to male power structures. In conclusion, Kim recognizes that “there are no human rights in North Korea”, a realization that only came after her arrival in South Korea. Her testimony reveals how totalitarian governance erodes both human dignity and moral consciousness, producing citizens who equate survival with complicity.