|
The U.S. has classified North Korea as a ¡°tier three¡± country under the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protections Act again this year. Tier three is the lowest possible rank and refers to countries that fail to satisfy the minimum conditions required. The U.S. Department of State in the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report released Wednesday cites trafficking of North Korea refugees as one of the main examples.
The report names the Apnok, or Yalu, River and the Duman, or Tumen, River, which serve as the natural boundary between North Korea and China, as a dangerous trafficking conduit for North Korean women and girls.
Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Kuwait, Myanmar, Moldova, Oman, Papua New Guinea Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria were also labeled as tier three countries. Since the research first began in 2003, North Korea has consistently been on the list. According to the report, North Korea ¡°is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The most common form of trafficking involves North Korean women and girls who cross the border into China voluntarily. Once in China, they are picked up by traffickers, and sold as brides to Chinese nationals, usually of Korean ethnicity or forced into prostitution.¡± NGOs estimate that tens of thousands of North Koreans are living in China as illegal immigrants, more than half of them women.
Meanwhile, South Korea is classified as a tier one country. South Korea started off as a tier three country in 2001 since the TVPA was enacted in October 2000, but has maintained tier one status since 2002. The report, however, says that although South Korea is fully implementing the minimum requirements for preventing trafficking, it needs to reinforce regulation on overseas sex tourism targeting youth and devise laws protecting foreign women who came to South Korea to marry South Korean men.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
