North Korean defectors grab China lifeline to smuggle cash, goods to family back home – despite dangers for those left behind
China is the main way out of North Korea for people fleeing the country but for many of those who make it across the border and into the South, it is also a vital link for defectors sending much-needed money back to their families. In this instalment of a four-part series, Josephine Ma looks at how exiles in the South find ways to support and stay in touch with their relatives back home
China is a lifeline for North Korean defectors living in the South, allowing them to send money back to their families and get a glimpse of conditions today in the homeland they left behind.
Contact is usually brief and dangerous, with relatives travelling to the hermit kingdom’s border and using smuggled Chinese SIM cards to tap into telecommunications signals across the Yalu River.
According to Amnesty International, those in North Korea often have to walk through mountainous areas at night just for the fleeting phone conversations.
Remittances vary but a 2016 survey of 200 defectors by the Seoul-based Chosun newspaper found that about 60 per cent of the 200 respondents sent US$900-US$1,800 each year via agents in China and North Korea while one person reported sending US$9,000 a year. About 70 per cent said they transferred money regularly.
One mother in her 50s told the South China Morning Post that she remitted US$3,000 to her son in North Korea last year and had sent US$2,000 so far this year.