North Korean women, who become pregnant after fleeing to China and are then repatriated to the communist state, suffer forced abortions committed by North Korean security officers, Free North Korea Radio reported Tuesday.
Security officers kick pregnant women in their abdomens to induce these; and if they give birth to babies, they kill them in the presence of their mothers, the report said.
Quoting an unnamed source in North Hamgyeong Province in the North, the broadcaster said, “Some North Korean women repatriated from China are pregnant. But the atrocities North Korean security officers commit against them are beyond belief.”
“Some time ago, a woman was released from prison because she was pregnant, but her baby was killed because the baby was of Chinese descent,” the source told the broadcaster.
According to the source, a Chinese man sold a North Korean woman, who fled the North in 2008, for 800,000 won and the woman was taken forcibly to Changchun, northeastern China. But she was arrested by Chinese security officers and repatriated to North Korea with three other North Korean women in April this year. At that time, she was pregnant.
The 28-year-old women, only identified by her family name Han, recalled that when she was under the custody of Chinese security authorities, she heard that if repatriated, North Korean security officers would kill all infants who are of Chinese descent. “But I thought that it was unthinkable as North Koreans are humans, too.”
After she was returned to the North, security officers gave her no drinking water. After her labor pains started, several officers surrounded her and kicked her abdomen.
She finally delivered a baby, but she saw them shoot it, shouting that the infant of Chinese descent should be killed, the broadcaster said.