The Three Roads of Fate...North Korean Defectors..

IF a person can actually manage to escape out of North Korea they will ultimately find themselves on one of the 'three roads of fate' [my own term].....

- The constantly uncertain and perilous road of the refugee
- The dark road [eventual capture] to repatriation which will end in
either death or imprisonment

Or

- The road to asylum [safety, freedom].

* Refugees

There are estimated 100,000 - 300,000 North korean refugees hiding out in China. Escape to China however does not mean freedom.. China has a policy called repatriation, if the police find an North Korean in China they bring them back over the border and given to the North Korean police who brutally interogate them, then send them prison camps, or execute them. If a repatriated woman is pregnant an abortion is forced, if small children accompanying them are thought to be of Chinese parentage the children are executed in front of the mother. Some women who remain in China are eventually forced into slavery and prostitution. The only real hope for North Koreans [in China] is to take their chances and leave, hoping to finally make their way to South Korea and safety. There they will be aliens and strangers, unfamiliar with both the dialect and the culture many falling into depression. The road to any real personal freedom for North Koreans [lucky enough to reach the end alive] is both long, perilous and hard.