The following is based on: Lee Saem-mool; 2014/01/28; “中 브로커들, 토굴속 꽃제비 구경시켜주며 관광 영업“; dongA.com
The hungry, uneducated future of a unified Korea
In front of the Namsan Hotel in Najin Province, North Korea, where a lot of foreign visitors reside, there are multiple groups of children around the age of ten, loitering. As soon as Chinese visitors exit the hotel door, the children follow them begging for money. “I’m so hungry. I haven’t eaten all day.” These children are called kkot-jae-bee (꽃제비), a word for child beggars in North Korea.
One Chinese yuan (18 cents USD) can treat these kkot-jae-bee to one meal. They can get a bowl of noodles or rice from a cheap diner, one never visited by the foreigners. Wang, a Chinese tourist who visits the region often, always has to turn back his back on them, unable to give these kids any money or food because if he tries he is immediately stopped by a security agent. Even so, the children continue to loiter around with desperate eyes. These children often show up at the restaurants that Wang visits. Sometimes he spots the children being scolded by the restaurant owners as they are caught eating food scraps.
Hunger has destroyed the North Korean education system. Kim, a Korean-Chinese, had recently visited his family in the NorthHamKyungProvince when he heard from his little nephew: “I go to school when I want to; if I don’t want to go, I don’t go. I also don’t go when I’m hungry.”
Not the teacher, classmates, nor the parents are interested in children’s school attendance. Kim said that the only children who attend school everyday in that village are the ones who are fed everyday. The situation is harsh for the teachers as well. Since the pay for teaching is extremely low, they have to earn money on the side to support themselves. One teacher in Najin said, “It would be better paying to sell seaweed at the market.”
In North Korea, many schools have been collecting money from the students to support their education system. A North Korean defector, Kim (43, female)’s son has constantly missed class for the reason above. The school demands, beans, rice and money from the students. “Everything is different than how it used to be. The country can no longer afford books and stationary for students. If you don’t have money, you can’t even wear your school uniform,” said Kim. The school expelled students who weren’t able to afford the improvised tuition fee. Kim’s son was expelled multiple times and came home crying every time. Unless there was money or crops to bring to school, there was no way to receive an education.
Kim farmed corn and raised pigs and chicken in her barn, but never had enough money since the soldiers came often and stole everything they had. Her son spent time his time at home or went around begging for food.
The kkot-jae-bee of the border simply as a tourist attraction
Since the security of the North Korean troops have increased, fewer child beggars come to China, but there are still some who cross the border, unable to fight the hunger. The ones who are able to come to china are the braver and smarter ones. Some are even chubby as they become very adept at finding food.
The children beggars in China experience most hardship when they seek a place to sleep or get sick. Park (58), who has been helping North Korean defectors in this area said, “When these kkot-jae-bee do not find people who can take care of them, they make tunnels in remote areas, using plastic bags to create a bed.”
It would be great if someone would be able to feed these children and give them a place to stay, but the chances of that happening are low. Most people are concerned of the possible problems that could arise when taking these kids in to their homes. Some even use these kids as tools for business. Park said, “Some Chinese use the kkot-jae-bee tunnels as a tourist attraction.” Another Chinese broker said, “We bring food when we bring tourists over to see them, so we’re providing food for these beggars.” The North Korean children have become a part of an eccentric safari tour.
There are some children who have escaped to China with their parents. An activist who has recently met North Korean defectors estimated that only about 30% of North Korean children are attending school. Another activist said that some children are not able to read properly even when they are fifteen or sixteen. They pointed out there is a serious problem with the North Korean education system.
Children growing up without a homeland
Another group of children suffering in the North Korean-Chinese border are the children born to North Korean defectors in China. In the course of escaping North Korea, a high proportion of women are trafficked to Chinese men. In this unwilling relationship, some women give birth to children. In a village near Tumen, China live about ten North Korean women who were sold through trafficking. Choi (45) escaped North Korea in 1988 and was sold to her current Chinese husband. She gave birth to two children who are now fifteen and thirteen. When she first arrived, the villagers all came to see her as if she were a zoo exhibit. Choi couldn’t understand a word of Chinese at the time.
Not long after, the Chinese police came by. They told her to pay 500 Yuan (90 USD) per year to ensure her safety; she knew that the police could easily transfer her back to North Korea if she refused. Each year the police visited around New Years. As years passed, they kept on asking for a higher price, and even now after fifteen years of her arrival, Choi is still paying off the police. When Choi suggested to her husband that they refuse to pay, her husband told her that there have been many cases of people being sent back to North Korea because they were unwilling to pay the bribe.
Even if the police are paid, there are still random searches. The Chinese police occasionally search for the North Korean defectors and they know in which household these women live in, so they can easily catch them. Only the families that have been regularly paying the police get a notice ahead so they can hide.
When Choi’s older daughter Eun-ju was born, they needed more money. The Chinese police threatened her by saying her marriage was not legal and in order to get a birth certificate, she had to pay 1000 Yuan. For her second child, Eun-ho, she had to pay an even higher price since Eun-ho was a boy. [Editor’s note: The Chinese government does not recognize the legality of marriages involving North Koreans as they have no legal status in the country, and further does not grant citizenship to the children born from these marriages.]
What distresses Choi even more than the threat of the Chinese police is the psychological pain that her children live with. They carry the scarlet letter of having a mother that was sold to her husband. At school, their peers mock them because of their “North Korean beggar mother.” The villagers’ words hurt them as well. “Your mother is North Korean, so watch her carefully. She might run away one day.”
As a result, the children avoid talking about their mother and hide the fact that she is from North Korea. Eun-ju, the older daughter, said, “I don’t want my peers to know my mother is North Korean.” When Choi intervened and said, “Yes, I am North Korean, then would you like me to hide?” Eun-ju cried and explained it wasn’t her mother that she didn’t like, but rather that it was discussed between her peers.
Choi said her children are in better situation compared to some other children in the village because there are North Korean women who have run away, leaving their children behind. A boy who is only nine lost his mother that way. “He was a good student while his mother was here. But now that the mother’s gone, he doesn’t even attend school,” Choi said.
The North Korean Chinese border area including Jilin, Yenben, Yenji, and Tumen provinces carries the tragedy of North Korean children, especially the kkot-jae-bee. Their situation within North Korea is horrible; they grow up in a situation without even basic dignity and without an education or residence or even a stable source of food. After their escape to China, not much improves. The children born in China as a result of trafficking are raised without a nation, identity nor legal parents or legal status, robbing them of a future. The police who should be protecting their families instead threaten to break them up, and Chinese law does not even regard them as persons. Activists who have been working in the region said, “In this rate, these children will be one of the main troubles of reunified Korea, instead of the future of reunified Korea.”
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