Rhetoric versus reality for the women of North Korea: Mothers of the revolution

Asian Survey

Volumn 46, Issue 5, 2006, Pages 741-760

  Jung, Kyungja ^a   Dalton, Bronwen ^b  

^a Immigrant Women's Speakout New South Wales (NSW) Association

^b UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Gender; Informal economy; Market forces; North Korea; Women

Indexed keywords

CAPITALISM; INFORMAL SECTOR; LOCAL ECONOMY; MARKET SYSTEM; WOMENS STATUS;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; KOREA; NORTH KOREA;

EID: 33751369990     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2006.46.5.741     Document Type: Article

References (118)

1. Chung Min Lee and Jonathan D. Pollack, Preparing for Korean Unification: Scenarios and Implications (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1999), p. xi. Note: Regarding the romanization of Korean in this article, for most Korean names we follow local practice and place the surname first.
2. Figures for mortality rates during the famine vary widely in different research. Andrew Natsios weighs up different evidence to support the argument that the famine is likely to have cost at least 2.5 million lives. Andrew Natsios, The Great North Korean Famine (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute for Peace, 2001), pp. 201-05.
3. The U.N. FAO and WFP, Special Report: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Rome: FAO and WFP, October 25, 2002). The latest nutrition figures suggest some improvement. A nutritional survey carried out in October 2004 by the Central Bureau of Statistics and North Korea's Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN), with the assistance of UNICEF and the WFP, found that malnutrition among children in North Korea declined between 2002 and 2004, evidenced by lower rates of stunting and wasting. However, proportions of stunted and underweight children, at 37% and 23%, respectively, remain "high," according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria.
4. Moreover, the assessment found that the nutritional status of mothers has not improved, with almost one in three women with young children remaining malnourished and anemic. See UNICEF, DPRK 2004 Nutrition Assessment Report of Survey Results (New York, February 2005), p. 72, at
5. The 300,000 figure appears on the South Korean Ministry of Unification website, , accessed February 2005, as well as regularly in the South Korean press (see, for example, ChungAng Ilbo [Central Daily], September 1, 2000, p. 6).
6. However, according to field research sponsored by the South Korean non-governmental organization (NGO) Choohunpos (Good Friends), between 143,000 and 195,000 were resident in Northeast China in 1999 (see Good Friends, Tumangang-ul Konnoon Saramdul (People who crossed the Tumen river) [Seoul: Chongdo Ch'ulp'an, 1999]), p. 1.
7. In 2002, So Tong-man estimated that the figure was closer to 100,000. So Tong-man, "Kwajangteon Puk Ch'eje Wigron" [Exaggerated views of a system crisis in North Korea], Taehan Maeil (Great Korea Daily), March 19, 2002.
8. In addition to these "push" factors, Lankov notes that there are various "pull" factors driving this migration. Increasingly, Chinese authorities are less able and perhaps less willing to hunt down and extradite the rapidly growing numbers of North Korean refugees. Also, economic conditions have improved along the Chinese side of the border partly due to South Korean ventures employing ethnic Koreans.
9. Andrei Lankov, "North Korean Refugees in Northeast China," Asian Survey 44:6 (November/December 2004), pp. 857-58.
10. Also see, David Wall, "No Witch Hunt for North Koreans in China," Japan Times, December 6, 2004.
11. Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU), Whitepaper on Human Rights in North Korea (Seoul: KINU, 2003).
12. Kim Kui-ok, Kim Su-nim, Lee Kyung-ha, and Hwang Eun-joo, Bukhan Yeoseongdeulen Eotteoke Salko Isseulkka [How North Korean women live] (Seoul: Dang-Dae, 2000)
13. Koo Soo-mi and Oh You-seok, "Bukhan Dosi Yeoseongeu Samgwa Euisik" [Life and self-consciousness of urban women in North Korea: Focused on women in the towns of Chung-Jin, Sin-Yi-Juh, and Hye-San), in Korean Social History Studies Association, Hankuk Sahoe sahoesahakhoe 65 (2004), pp. 308-58
14. Sohn Bong-sook, ed., Bukhaneui Yeoseong Saenghwal [Lives of women in North Korea] (Seoul: Nanam, 1991)
15. Sonia Ryang, "Gender in Oblivion: Women in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)," Journal of African and Asian Studies 35:3 (August 2000), pp. 323-49.
16. Kim Tae-hyun and No Chi-young, Jaejung Bukhan Ital Yeoseongdeui Sam [Life experiences of North Korean refugee women in China] (Seoul: Ha-U, 2003)
17. Choi Myung-sook, "90yeon Daeihu Choseon Yeoseongdeuleui Kajeongeseoeui Same Kwanhayeo" [North Korean women's life in the household since the 1990s], in Korean Women's Institute, ed., Nambukhan Yeoseong Keuliko Jungkuk Choseonjok Yeoseongeui sam [Lives of South and North Korean women and Chinese Korean women] (Seoul: Korean Women's Institute, Ehwa Women's University, 1999).
18. Lim Sun-hee, Choseon Yeoseong Bunseok [Analysis of Choson Yosong] (Seoul: KINU, 2003).
19. Lim Sun-hee, Siklyangnankwa Bukhan Yeoseongeui Yeokhal Mit Euisik Byeonhwa [Change in the role and consciousness of North Korean women after the food crisis] (Seoul: KINU, 2004)
20. Lee Mi-kyung, "Kyeojenan Ihueui Bukhan Yeoseongeul Samkwa Euisik Byeonhwa" [A change in lives and consciousness of North Korean women after the economic crisis], Asea Yeonku (Asian Studies) 47:2 (2004), pp. 183-212.
21. Lee On-juk, "Yeoseongkwa Gajeong Saenghwal" [North Korea women's life at home], in Sohn, Bukhaneui Yeoseong Saenghwal, pp. 37-93
22. Park Hyun-sun, Hyeondae Bukhaneui Gajokjedoe Kwanhan Yeonku [A study on contemporary family in North Korea focused on family reproduction and family structure], Ehwa Women's University, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (1999).
23. Choi Jin-yee, "Bukhan Yeoseong Munje Yeonkueui Jeong danghan bangbeobe Daehan Yeonku" [A study on relevant methodology for research on North Korean women], Euihak Haengdong Kwahak (Behavioral Science in Medicine) 3:1 (2004), pp. 3-13.
24. Ibid., p. 13.
25. Amnesty International, Starved of Rights: Human Rights and the Food Crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) (Al Index: ASA 24/00302004, 2004),
26. Citizen's Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, "Women's Human Rights in North Korea," presented at the 3rd International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees, Tokyo (2002)
27. WFP, "Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions to DPRK" (annual reports, 1999-2003, Rome), .
28. Barbara Demick, "The Hidden Stories of North Korea," Nieman Reports (Fall 2004), pp. 113-14, at www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/04-3NRfall/113-114V58N3.pdf.
29. On more general methodological issues relating to payment for interviews, see M. Berk, N. Mathiowetz, E. Ward, and A. White, "The Effect of Prepaid and Promised Incentives: Results of a Controlled Experiment," Journal of Official Statistics 3:4 (1987), pp. 449-57.
30. Marcus Noland, Famine and Reform in North Korea (Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 2003)
31. Marcus Noland, "Why North Korea Will Muddle Through," Foreign Affairs 65:4 (July/August 1997), pp. 105-18.
32. Inflation has soared as shown by the rising price of the U.S. dollar in the black markets of Pyongyang, from 950 won = $1 in November 2003 to more than 2,900 won = $1 in July 2006. The first rate appears in "Inflation Creates a North Korean Dollar Economy," One Free Korea, July 7, 2005,
33. The second figure appears in Kathi Zellweger, "Caritas-Hong Kong 51st DPRK Trip Report July 18-29, 2006," Hong Kong, August 8, 2006.
34. Noland notes how the gap may widen between those with access to foreign exchange (such as senior officials) and agricultural workers (who may benefit from rises in the price of grain) and salaried workers without access to foreign exchange. Marcus Noland, "Life in North Korea," Testimony on Life Inside North Korea, Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., June 5, 2003, .
35. Noland, "Why North Korea Will Muddle Through," p. 13.
36. In 1950 the present market system was established as an Agricultural Market under the management of the People's Council in each province, city, and county. In 1958 the new name of Farmers' Market was given, and the approved tradable items were restricted to vegetables and limited amounts of grain, mainly produced on individual small farming gardens. In 2002 the government renamed the Farmers' Market as Market Place and allowed previously prohibited industrial products to be traded. See Good Friends, Human Rights in North Korea and the Food Crisis (Seoul: Good Friends, 2004).
37. Donald Macintyre, "Cracks in Kim's World," Time, February 21, 2005, p. 24.
38. Ibid., p. 24
39. Hankyureh (Seoul), February 27, 2005
40. Andrei Lankov, "Cracks in North Korean 'Stalinism'," Asian Times Online, December 7, 2005,
41. South Korean Ministry of Unification website, accessed November 2005. According to Kwak Hae-ryong, women may account for nearly 80% of all North Korean refugees in China.
42. Kwak Hae-ryong, "A Study of the Human Rights Situation of the Refugees Who Fled North Korea," Study of Peace Problems, no. 1 (2000), p. 261.
43. This and other research regarding the number of women in China is discussed in Lankov, "North Korean Refugees in Northeast China," p. 860.
44. Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (December 27, 1972), in Selected Works 6 (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1974), p. 364.
45. Ibid.
46. Kim Il Sung, Report to the Fifth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea on the Work of the Central Committee (November 1970), in Selected Works 5 (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1972), p. 451.
47. Lim, Analysis of Choseon Yeoseong, p. 31.
48. Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, p. 108.
49. Ryang, "Gender in Oblivion," p. 343.
50. Ibid., p. 325.
51. South Korea did not abolish this system until 2005. The system granted priority to men over women in heading a family as recorded on the family registry. The new system in South Korea allows either parent's surname to be used.
52. Shin En-young, "Ideology and Gender Equality: Women's Policies of North Korea and China," East Asian Review (Seoul) 13:3 (2001), pp. 81-104.
53. Ibid., p. 84.
54. Inspired by Mao's Great Leap Forward, the Cheollima movement was started by Kim Il Sung in 1958 and focused on the collectivization of agriculture. It takes its name from a mythical winged horse that could leap 1,000 ri (about 250 kilometers).
55. Shin, "Ideology and Gender Equality," p. 85.
56. Kim Kui-ok et al., How North Korean Women Live, pp. 24-25.
57. Ibid., p. 25.
58. Koo and Oh, "Life and self-consciousness," p. 324. All figures cited apply only to the dates stipulated. Current figures for the percentage of children in child care, for example, are not available.
59. Ryang, "Gender in Oblivion," p. 332.
60. Ibid., p. 337.
61. Article 70, Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1998).
62. Choi Jin-yee, "A Study on Relevant Methodology," p. 9.
63. A lack of females in managerial positions has been noted in some international aid agency reports. The Catholic relief and development organization Caritas has recently called for improved representation of women at managerial levels in Caritas-funded programs, see Caritas, "Emergency Appeal for the Ongoing Food and Health Crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the Period April 2005 to March 2006," Caritas Emergency Appeal Document (November 2005), Hong Kong, p. 9.
64. Shin, "Ideology and Gender Equality," p. 94.
65. Koo and Oh, "Life and Self-consciousness," pp. 311-13.
66. Choi Jin-yee, "A Study on Relevant Methodology," p. 10.
67. Koo and Oh, "Life and Self-consciousness," p. 340.
68. Shin, "Ideology and Gender Equality," p. 100.
69. Koo and Oh, "Life and Self-consciousness," p. 338.
70. Shin, "Ideology and Gender Equality," p. 90.
71. Koo and Oh, "Life and Self-consciousness," p. 346.
72. Ibid., p. 351.
73. Kim Kui-ok et al., How North Korean Women Live, p. 127.
74. Lee On-juk, "North Korea Women's Life at Home," p. 69
75. Park Hyun-sun, A Study on Contemporary Family, p. 208.
76. Lee On-juk, "North Korea Women's Life at Home," p. 69.
77. Choi Jin-yee, "A Study on Relevant Methodology," p. 11.
78. Ibid.
79. According to a book edited by the South Korean writers' club MinJok 21, about 70% of marriages are so-called "love" marriages (i.e., not arranged). MinJok, Bukhan Saramdeuleun Eoddeoke Salko Isseulkka? [How do North Koreans live?] (Seoul: Sen-In, 2004), p. 199.
80. Choi Myung-sook, "North Korean Women's Life in the Household," p. 12.
81. Ibid.
82. Kim and No, Life Experiences of North Korean Refugee Women in China, p. 73
83. Park Hyunsun, A Study on Contemporary Family
84. and Lim Sun-hee, Change in the Role and Consciousness, p. 12.
85. Park Hyun-sun, A Study on Contemporary Family, p. 210.
86. Cathy Hong, "North Korea: One Refugee's Story: Poet Makes Hard Journey from Tragic North to South," Ms. Magazine (Summer 2004).
87. KINU, Whitepaper on Human Rights in North Korea, p. 174.
88. Choi Jin-yee, "A Study on Relevant Methodology," p. 10.
89. There are various author accounts of how Kim Jong Il maintains so-called "pleasure groups" consisting of teams of women that perform a range of services including sexual services and singing and dancing performances. See Jasper Becker, Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 15-20.
90. Lim Sun-hee, Change in the Role and Consciousness, pp. 53-54.
91. Choi Jin-yee, "A Study on Relevant Methodology," p. 11.
92. KINU, Whitepaper on Human Rights in North Korea, p. 173.
93. Also see Lankov, "North Korean Refugees in Northeast China."
94. KINU, ibid., p. 174.
95. Many North Korean women are sold to Chinese husbands through Chinese and Chinabased ethnic Korean brokers for prices estimated between 1,000 to 10,000 yuan ($120-$1,200). The entire amount goes only to these intermediaries. Yim Ul-ch'ul, "Yurit'ang Hanun T'albuk Yeiseong" [North Korean female refugees subjected to mistreatment], in Hangyere 21 (Korean Nation), September 9, 1999, (Seoul), .
96. Also see testimonies in Cho Hyong-rae, "T'albuk Yoin Insin Maemae Kuksong" [The growth of the trade in North Korean women], Choseon Ilbo, January 12, 1999, p. 27.
97. Good Friends, Bukhan Saramdeuli Ryakihaneun Bukhan Ryaki [North Korean people speak out] (Seoul: Jungto Press, 2000), p. 132.
98. KINU, Whitepaper on Human Rights in North Korea, p. 173.
99. Young, a female defector cited in A. Faiola, "North Korean Women Find Life of Abuse Waiting in China," Washington Post, March 3, 2004, p. A20.
100. Barbara Demick, "Desperate North Korean Women Marry to Stay in China, but They Often Enter a Life of Violence, Slavery," San Francisco Chronicle, August 26, 2003, p. A10.
101. Koo and Oh, "Life and Self-consciousness," p. 340.
102. Ibid., p. 346.
103. Lim Sun-hee, Change in the Role and Consciousness, p. 15
104. Andrei Lankov, "North Korea: Market Forces Have Female Faces," Asia Times Online, April 6, 2005, .
105. Lim Sun-hee, Change in the Role and Consciousness, p. 15.
106. Lankov, "North Korea: Market Forces Have Female Faces."
107. U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Rationalizing of the Cottage Industry in Pyongyang (February 1994).
108. IFAD, D.P.R.K. Crop and Livestock Rehabilitation Project (December 2001), , accessed March 5, 2006.
109. See, for example, Marian Adnanes, "Youth and Gender in Post-Communist Bulgaria," Journal of Youth Studies 4:1 (2000), pp. 25-40
110. Jacqueline Heinen, "Public/Private: Gender-social and Political Citizenship in Eastern Europe," Theory and Society 26:4 (1997), pp. 577-97
111. Jacqui True, "Expanding Markets and Marketing Gender: The Integration of the Post-socialist Czech Republic," Review of International Political Economy 6:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 360-89.
112. Eva Fodor, "The State Socialist Emancipation Project: Gender Inequality in Workplace Authority in Hungary and Austria," Signs 29:3 (2004), p. 787.
113. James Cotton, "Civil Society in the Political Transition of North Korea," Korea and World Affairs 16:2 (Summer 1992), pp. 319-37.
114. Chris Corrin, ed., Superwomen and the Double Burden: Women's Experience of Change in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (London: Scarlet Press, 1992)
115. Nanette Funk and Magda Mueller, eds., Gender Politics and Post-Communism: Reflections from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (London: Routledge, 1993)
116. Barbara Einhorn, ed., Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender, and Women's Movements in East Central Europe (London: Verso, 1993).
117. Lim Sun-hee, Change in the Role and Consciousness, pp. 94-95.
118. Ibid., p. 95.