The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and 25 other countries were also included in the Tier 1 country list. The report announced that South Korea is the place of destination and a transit point in trafficking Filipino, Thai and Southeast Asian women for sex exploitation, and Chinese and Russian women are also trafficked to South Korea. It said in some cases, South Korean women were also trafficked to the United States and Japan. The report, however, said the South Korean government understands the problem and supports the victims of human trafficking and punishes human traffickers, and worked hard to reform laws on preventing human trafficking. The report assessed that South Korea has made additional progress in handling the crime of human trafficking in 2003.

North Korea was classified as a Tier 3 country, which is the lowest group, where human trafficking is taking place for the purpose of forced labor and sexual exploitation. 10 other countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, and Cuba were classified as Tier 3 countries that do not keep the lowest criterion for the prevention of human trafficking as well as not making even the slightest meaningful efforts.

The report said that, “ Many people, including little kids, are suffering while being forced to work in North Korea right now, and sometimes, they dies in slavery." It said thousands of North Koreans escape to China, Russia or Mongolia due to the worsening economic situation in North Korea, even though the country gets humanitarian assistance from the international community. Because North Koreans are illegal residents in those countries, human trafficking and sexual and physical abuse involving North Korean refugees is getting worse.

(Kang In-sun, insun@chosun.com )