North Korea: Girls sold to China
WANGQING, CHINA–North Korean girls are being sold to Chinese men to feed their families, who are suffering from famine. Many are girls in their early teens. Some are being sold to brothels and karaoke halls, but most are being sold as brides to men in Chinese villages. The girls are being smuggled.
“I was willing to be a bride so my mother could be free,” a IS-year-old girl told the Washington Post.
The price for a girl ranges from the equivalent of $800 to $1,150, depending on her age, looks, and health.
In the last two months, the Chinese authorities have increased the fine for selling women to $1,000, but that isn’t much of a deterrent because a seller can recoup that amount by selling just one girl.
–info from Washington Post, 2/12
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