Suh, a 30-year-old woman who fled North Korea in 2008, cradles her 18-month-old daughter Ji-yeon as they make the difficult journey from Laos to Thailand. “I fell several times and the baby woke up and started crying,” Suh said after they arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. “I was so scared but I kept on going, I just kept on going.” (Sin Huh ) 
 
 — Sometimes the men just wanted to talk with the North Korean women. “Face cam,” it’s called. But most of the time, they wanted the other option: “body cam.” 
 
 Watching through a smartphone app, the men would ask the women, some of the unknown thousands of North Koreans sold to Chinese husbands and living secretly in northern China, to show their breasts or their backsides, to touch themselves or perform sex acts on one another. 
 
 Most of the time, the women did as requested. They needed the money — even if it amounted to only a few dollars a day. 
 
 “In the beginning, I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I thought it would be okay because I wasn’t actually sleeping with anyone,” said Suh, who, until dreams of escape brought her to this dingy room in Laos, had been one of the legions of North Korean women performing online sex work in back rooms in China. “But then I found out how many perverts there are out there.” 
 
 Suh, a 30-year-old who escaped from North Korea in 2008, resorted to doing “video chatting” after her second child was born and her husband’s meager construction earnings wouldn’t stretch any further. 
 
 “There are some people who just want to look at your face, but the majority of them are there for their sexual desires,” Suh said, putting her head down so her long hair covered her cherubic face. “I felt so disgusting.” 
 
 Together with two women from her village in northeastern China who were also doing chatting work, Suh fled over the summer. She made the heart-wrenching decision to leave her 5-year-old daughter with her Chinese husband. 
 
 The women traveled by bus and car down through China to the border with Laos, which they crossed illegally in the black of night, Suh carrying her 18-month-old daughter, Ji-yeon, on her back. 
 
 The women made it to Vientiane, the Laotian capital, where a Washington Post reporter spent two days with them as they paused on their journey to what they hoped would be a better life. The women talked for hours about their lives in North Korea and in China but, unlike some defectors who exaggerate their stories to make them more sensational, they appeared to play down their experiences, apparently out of shame. 
 
 [North Korea claims it has made warheads with ‘higher strike power’] 
 
 Most of their stories could be verified with the pastor and broker who were helping them escape, and it was clear that the women, faced with no other options, had resorted to performing on camera for men. 
 
 The women had a friend film them at work before they left, so they could prove what they had been doing. The videos showed the women — sometimes in brightly colored underwear, sometimes naked — sitting against a low bed covered with a purple Hello Kitty quilt in front of two computers on a low table. Men, sometimes visible, sometimes not, gave them instructions. Most of the men they “chatted” with online were in South Korea, but a few were in America and even Africa. 
 
 Safely out of China, the other two women, both called Kim, wanted to get to South Korea, but Suh had her heart set on a more ambitious destination: the United States, “the strongest country on Earth.” 
 
 “I think my daughter is one lucky baby,” Suh said, sitting on the bed in a grimy room in Vientiane and looking at Ji-yeon as she slept, snoring lightly. Their few possessions were in plastic shopping bags, save for the clothes drying on coat hangers dangling from the light fittings. The baby had not even one toy. “All the suffering is worth it. Our destiny has changed,” Suh said. 
 
 
 
 Suh, a 30-year-old woman, carried her 18-month-old daughter Ji-yeon on her back as they illegally crossed the border from Laos into Thailand at night. “I think my daughter is one lucky baby. All the suffering is worth it. Our destiny has changed,” Suh said after they’d arrived in Vientiane. (Sin Huh) 
 
 Lives at risk 
 
 Defections such as that of Thae Yong Ho, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom who fled to South Korea over the summer, make headlines because they are so rare. But less sensationally, a steady if diminishing stream of North Koreans is making their way out, down through China, across to Laos, then into Thailand and eventually to South Korea. 
 
 Most are women from the northern provinces, considered down-and-out even by North Korean standards, and face an extremely precarious life in northeastern China. Many had been sold — some knowingly, thinking life couldn’t get any worse. But other women had been tricked into thinking they were heading to jobs in China, only to find that the man who offered to help them escape, paying bribes to border soldiers and arranging passage, turned out to be a trafficker, selling the women and pocketing the profits. 
 
 The buyers are men in the countryside who are too poor or unappealing to get a wife any other way, and the women are stuck in remote villages where they cannot communicate with the locals — if they are permitted to leave the house, that is. 
 
 Since Kim Jong Un took control of North Korea at the end of 2011, security has been tightened, and it has become increasingly difficult to escape. That has driven up prices. Women ages 15 to 25 are the most prized, fetching between $10,000 and $12,000, brokers and humanitarian workers say, while women in their 30s can be acquired for half that. 
 
 Increased prices mean that some Chinese families are spending their entire life savings to buy a North Korean woman, and as a result the women are sometimes shackled inside the house. 
 
 But even if the women are allowed out and even after they learn some Chinese, venturing into the open is a risky business. If they’re caught by the Chinese police, they face repatriation to North Korea and, at a minimum, time in a labor camp. 
 
 “These North Korean women in China faced a dire dilemma, either having to remain hidden and submit to this kind of sexual exploitation, or risk working outside of their residence with the very real possibility that Chinese authorities could arrest them at any time and force them back to North Korea,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. 
 
 The State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report noted that North Korean women and girls “are subjected to sexual slavery by Chinese or Korean-Chinese men, forced prostitution in brothels or through Internet sex sites, or compelled service as hostesses in nightclubs or karaoke bars.” 
 
 The State Department reported that the Chinese government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.” 
 
 Although some women take the risk of working outside the home, shuttling between cleaning and babysitting jobs or working behind the scenes in restaurants, an increasing number feel they have no choice but to try to make money behind closed doors. 
 
 That is where video chatting comes in. 
 
 [These North Korean missile launches add up to something very troubling] 
 
 Online sex work vs. escape 
 
 About one-fifth of the North Korean women living in hiding in China are involved in this kind of online sex work, said Park, a broker who works to get women out. 
 
 The Post agreed to withhold Park’s full name to avoid jeopardizing this highly sensitive work. The newspaper also agreed to use the women’s family names only, partly to protect relatives in North Korea. 
 
 “If you’re working in a restaurant or outside, you run the risk of being asked for your papers by the police. So doing this work is safer and the money is better,” Park said. “In the village where they lived, every North Korean woman does this. It’s so normal to be doing this.” 
 
 Some North Korean women in China are forced into this work, essentially held prisoner by pimps. The women The Post met were not forced, as such. But they had few other opportunities. 
 
 Suh was sold eight years ago to a man in northern China who, she said, treated her well — he beat her “only a few times.” But the arrival of their second child made a tough financial situation untenable. She heard about video chatting through a friend of a friend and began chatting with South Korean men at night when everyone in her house was asleep. 
 
 On her first day she earned $3. In her best week, she netted $120. 
 
 A few months ago, Suh decided she couldn’t take it. “I wondered why I had to do this. I’m a human being, the same as everyone else,” Suh said, breaking down into heaving sobs. “I wanted to be a good mother, a strong mother for my daughters.” 
 
 [After nuclear test, a push to stop North Korea from sending workers abroad] 
 
 She decided to try to leave, along with the two others. They found out about Park and Kim Sung-eun, a pastor from the Caleb Mission, a church in South Korea that helps bring defectors to safety, and asked to be helped out. For the second time in their lives, they escaped, this time to a safe house in northern China, and from there they made the journey to the border, then walked to Laos. 
 
 “I was so scared, but I kept on going, I just kept on going,” Suh said. “I kept walking toward Pastor Kim and Park.” 
 
 
 
 The women make the treacherous journey from southern China to Laos, walking across the border in the dark. The path through Laos and Thailand is now a well-known escape route for North Koreans seeking freedom in South Korea — and, in some cases, in the United States — so they have to take extra precautions to avoid detection by police. (Sin Huh) 
 
 Laos was safer but still somewhat of a gray area; they may be sent back. Once they got to Thailand, the fear of repatriation to North Korea would be gone. 
 
 While waiting to cross the Mekong River, the women talked about the difficult decisions they had had to make. Suh’s 5-year-old is listed on her Chinese father’s family register, which gives her legal status in China and enables her to go to school. But by the time Ji-yeon was born, the back channel for registration — involving bribes to willing officials — had closed. The baby doesn’t legally exist. 
 
 So when Suh decided to flee and realized she could only manage to take one child with her, she knew it had to be Ji-yeon. “She thinks I’ve abandoned her,” Suh said, breaking down into another torrent of tears as she recalled telling her older daughter she would be back soon. 
 
 The day they were to cross into Thailand, the women were full of nervous excitement. But things soon went wrong. Heavy rain had swollen the Mekong, and their boat missed the drop point. 
 
 They were discovered by local police and taken to a prison. They were terrified and sent an endless stream of messages to Park, asking if they would be sent back to North Korea. One photo they sent showed Ji-yeon standing in a cell, looking out through the bars. 
 
 [Reaching a South Korean audience by finding laughs from North Korea] 
 
 Instead, they were taken to Bangkok, where they are now being held at a detention center, the pastor said. 
 
 Suh has applied for asylum in the United States, even though she speaks no English and knows she will receive little support, unlike in South Korea. Officials from the American Embassy in Bangkok have met with Suh and her daughter, the pastor said. He estimated that it would take about four months for their asylum claims to be processed. 
 
 An embassy spokeswoman in Bangkok declined to comment. The United States has accepted 74 refugees from North Korea since Kim took power, according to State Department data. 
 
 During the pause in Vientiane, the relief of being out of China had washed over the women, and the challenges ahead loomed. The women had begun to dwell on the handicaps that North Koreans face. “I have no passport, no papers, nothing,” Suh said. “Why are our lives so different, just because of where we are born?” 
 
 Read more 
 
 North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain defects from London 
 
 Another North Korean execution, but is this a sign of instability or strength? 
 
 As Pyongyang celebrates, ordinary North Koreans must flee to survive 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world ||||| Image copyright EPA Image caption Doctors have removed five bullets from the soldier's body - but suspect there are two more bullets inside 
 
 A North Korean who defected at the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone was shot at least five times and is in a critical condition, South Korea says. 
 
 The soldier crossed to the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the village of Panmunjom on Monday. 
 
 He had driven near the JSA, but had to finish his journey by foot when a wheel came loose, the South said. 
 
 North Korean troops shot at him 40 times - but he made it across and was found under a pile of leaves, it added. 
 
 About 1,000 people from the North flee to the South each year - but very few defect via the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which is one of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land. 
 
 It is even more unusual for North Koreans to cross at the JSA, which is a tourist attraction, and the only portion of the DMZ where both forces stand face-to-face. 
 
 North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce and not a formal peace treaty. 
 
 Five bullets extracted 
 
 South Korea's military gave more details of the soldier's condition on Tuesday. 
 
 "Until this morning, we heard he had no consciousness and was unable to breathe on his own - but his life can be saved," military official Suh Uk told lawmakers. 
 
 Doctors had extracted five bullets from his body, but suspected there were two more inside, he added. 
 
 The soldier had been spotted driving towards the JSA on Monday afternoon - but a wheel came off, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. 
 
 "He then exited the vehicle and continued fleeing south across the line as he was fired upon by other soldiers from North Korea," the US-led United Nations Command said. 
 
 The defector took cover behind a building on the South Korea side - troops later found him collapsed under a pile of leaves, and crawled to the spot to recover him, the military added. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption The JSA is the only part of the DMZ where North and South Korean troops face each other 
 
 South Korea's defence minister Song Young-moo told lawmakers that it was the first time North Korean soldiers had shot into the South's side of the JSA. 
 
 Some MPs questioned whether this meant North Korea had violated the terms of the armistice agreement between the two sides, Yonhap news agency reported. 
 
 Four-year-old detained 
 
 Seoul says more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953. 
 
 The majority of the defectors flee via China, which has the longest border with North Korea and is easier to cross than the heavily protected DMZ. 
 
 China though regards the defectors as illegal migrants rather than refugees and often forcibly repatriates them. 
 
 On Tuesday, the BBC's Korean service spoke to one man whose wife and four-year-old son are currently in detention in China, and are likely to be repatriated to the North. 
 
 Addressing Chinese President Xi Jinping, the man, who asked to be identified only as Mr Lee, urged the Chinese leader to "please keep them alive and send them to South Korea". 
 
 He said his wife and son would either face execution or be put in a political prison camp if sent back to the North. 
 
 "My wife told me that the location of their safe house was revealed. After waiting an hour I called her again and she said she was arrested and cuffed. Then she hung up." 
 
 "I realise I'm useless as there's nothing I can do... I'm deeply regretful - I will live under guilt until we meet again," he added. 
 
 Separately, a US man was arrested after he tried to enter North Korea on Monday, Yonhap reported. 
 
 The 58-year-old crossed the Civilian Control Line, which marks an extra buffer zone beneath the DMZ, for political purposes, the news agency said. 
 
 He is currently being investigated by police. ||||| A group of female North Korean workers has been forcefully repatriated from China after it was learned that they had been asked to work as prostitutes on the sly by their overseer while officially hired at a food factory, according to a local source. 
 
 
 
 The women, believed to number about half a dozen, were among North Korean workers sent across the border to gain precious foreign exchange revenue and had been placed under strict living conditions, including being barred from traveling outside their lodging alone, a source from China’s Liaoning province bordering North Korea told RFA’s Korean Service. 
 
 
 
 However, the women, who worked at a food production factory in Liaoning’s Donggang city, had been leaving their compound at night to engage in illegal activities—including prostitution—at the behest of their handler, infuriating the local community, the source said. 
 
 
 
 “It was exposed that some of the North Korean female workers who work at a food factory located in Donggang went outside at night after work and engaged in prostitution,” he said. 
 
 
 
 “As a result, some of the workers and their North Korean handler were deported by the Chinese public security personnel.” 
 
 
 
 The source said that an executive of the Chinese company that owns the food factory ran a prostitution ring and had instructed the North Korean handler to select women from his group and let them leave at night to serve as sex workers. 
 
 
 
 “The company’s executive, the North Korean handler and the female workers were to share in the profits that the women received for sex,” he said. 
 
 
 
 “But the female workers never received their share of the money, so they complained and caused a disturbance, and these facts came out. As a result, the Chinese public security officials investigated the matter, found the responsible people and deported them.” 
 
 
 
 Another source from China told RFA that North Korean women working in the country are frequently forced into prostitution. 
 
 
 
 “It simply hasn’t come out in the past, but there have been many similar situations,” he said, adding that he blamed the North Korean handler’s “lack of morality” for the recent deportation of the female food factory workers. 
 
 
 
 Vulnerable to trafficking 
 
 
 
 There are no official figures on the total number of North Koreans working in China, but in January, China’s National Tourism Administration reported that 93,300 North Koreans were granted work visas to enter the country in 2013, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. 
 
 
 
 A Korean peddler of Chinese ethnicity surnamed Ju said that while the opportunity to earn foreign currency as a worker in China had been highly sought after in the past, people were growing increasingly wary. 
 
 
 
 “In the past, it was very hard to be hired as a worker at a restaurant in China where one can earn foreign currency, but it’s no longer popular [to try],” he said. 
 
 
 
 “Many parents know that female workers are driven to illegal acts while working abroad, including prostitution.” 
 
 
 
 Multiple sources told RFA that North Korean workers and waitresses who are sent to China find it hard to refuse unreasonable requests from corrupt handlers, because they fear repatriation. 
 
 
 
 There are also several thousand North Korean women who flee their country to China to avoid blatant human rights abuses. 
 
 
 
 According to the U.S. State Department’s 2013 Trafficking in Persons report, China is a destination for women and girls, “largely from neighboring countries,” who are sometimes subjected to forced marriage and forced prostitution upon arrival. 
 
 
 
 “The government continued to treat North Koreans found in China as illegal economic migrants, despite credible independent reporting that many North Korean female refugees in China are trafficking victims,” the report said. 
 
 
 
 “The government detained and deported such refugees to North Korea, where they may face severe punishment, even death, including in North Korean forced labor camps.” 
 
 
 
 The Chinese government did not provide North Korean trafficking victims with legal alternatives to repatriation, while Chinese authorities sometimes prosecuted citizens who assisted North Korean refugees and trafficking victims. 
 
 
 
 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is barred from access to North Koreans in northeast China, leaving them vulnerable to human traffickers, the report said. 
 
 
 
 Reported by Joon Ho Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Jina Lee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
– "Why are our lives so different, just because of where we are born?" That's the question posed to the Washington Post by Suh, a 30-year-old North Korean woman now being held in a Bangkok detention center after being busted by local cops while trying to cross from Laos to Thailand. And this is only her most recent travail: Suh and two other women interviewed by the Post were trying to flee their lives as sex "video chatters" in China, an online profession many women are sucked into after first escaping North Korea—either by willingly getting sold to Chinese men to get out of their home country, or after being tricked into thinking they were being hired for jobs in China, only to end up as human trafficking victims. Purchasing North Korean women is big business in China for men who can't find wives any other way: The asking price for women between 15 and 25 can near $12,000. Life in China is impoverished and dangerous for these North Korean nationals: They can be deported back to their home country if they're caught, per Radio Free Asia. North Korean women trying to survive there often fall into the online "video chatting" business, allowing them to bring in some extra cash from the safety of their own homes. But it's a demeaning, demoralizing trade. "I felt so disgusting," Suh says. And it's what led Suh (who brought her 18-month-old daughter with her, but had to leave her 5-year-old daughter behind) and the two other women to try to escape once more—this time to Laos, then to Thailand, where they wouldn't have been able to be repatriated back to North Korea. The two women being detained with Suh want to eventually make it to South Korea, but Suh is applying for asylum instead in "the strongest country on Earth": the United States. (Their sad story here.)