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Now safe, after crossing the border, Mira (left) and Jiyun (right) gaze at China
From the third floor of a residential building in the Chinese city of Yanji, two young women throw an improvised rope out the window with sheets.
They leave the window and begin the descent. "Quick, we do not have much time," warns the person who helps them to escape.
When they go down, they run towards a van.
But they are not safe yet.
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Chun Kiwon
Mira stayed five years in the apartment, forced to see herself in the webcam.
Mira and Jiyun are "deserters" from North Korea and, in different years, have been deceived by traffickers.
After crossing the Chinese border, the same people who helped them escape from North Korea entrusted them to a gang that produces live bad videos.
For eight years, Jiyun was confined to an apartment and forced to work by broadcasting live poses and badgraphic acts online. Mira has lived the same nightmare for the last five years.
Image caption
Chun Kiwon
This was the site of webcam bad that the two young North Koreans were forced to watch. to use while they were slaves.
Leaving North Korea without the permission of the regime is illegal. And many people risk their lives during the flight.
South Korea is a safe haven, but the narrow border with North Korea is heavily militarized and full of mines, making escape almost impossible.
As a result, many deserters go north and try to enter China.
But in China, those fleeing North Korea are considered "illegal immigrants" and expelled when they are discovered by the authorities. Once back home, the deserters are subjected to torture and punitive interrogations for "betraying the country".
Many deserters fled in the mid-1990s, when a major food shortage known as the "Harsh March" killed an estimated one million people.
But since Kim Jong-un took office in North Korea in 2011, the number of people fleeing the country each year has fallen to less than half. The decline was attributed to the reinforcement of border control mechanisms and high prices practiced by the gangs that contributed to their escape.
Mira defected at the age of 22.
Born a few years after the famine crisis, he is part of a new generation of North Koreans. Thanks to the growing network of black markets, known locally as Jangmadang, these young people have access to famous creator DVDs, cosmetics and fake clothing, as well as USB sticks containing illegal movies.
Image caption
Jiyun spent eight years in Yanji's apartment, where she was forced to do live bad poses via webcam.
This flow of foreign matter has the consequence that some of them are undone. For them, the films that enter the country via China are a window on the world and a motivation to leave North Korea.
"I loved Chinese movies a lot and I thought that all Chinese were like that, I wanted to marry a Chinese and I looked for ways to leave North Korea for several years," he says. Mira.
His father, a former soldier and member of the ruling party in North Korea, was very severe. Sometimes he even beat Mira.
The girl wanted to study medicine, but her father prevented her. More and more frustrated, she dreamed of a new life in China.
"My father was a party member and it was stuffy." He did not let me watch foreign movies. "I had to wake up and sleep at the same time." Images
Barbed wire surrounds the Tumen River, used by North Koreans to get to China
For many years, Mira has been trying to find a "coyote" to help her cross the Tumen River and leave her country. But the gangs were afraid to help the young woman flee because of the close ties that bind her family to the government.
Finally, after years of testing, Mira found someone who came to help her. Like many deserters, the young woman did not have enough money to pay the coyotes directly. So she agreed to be "sold" and work to pay the debt.
She was thinking of working in a restaurant, but found herself in the hands of a gang that is recruiting women from North Korea to feed the bad industry.
After crossing the Tumen River and entering China, Mira was taken to Yanji City, where he was badigned to a man who was introduced to him as "the director". After escaping from the apartment in Yanji, Mira (center) and Jiyun (right) went to a nearby house accompanied by a volunteer (left) from the house. NGOs.
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Legend of the image
Durihana
Yanji is located in the heart of the Yanbian region, which retains a certain level of independence from the central government of Beijing.
A large population of people of Korean origin lives there and the territory has become a trading zone with North Korea and one of the main refuges for North Korean fugitives.
The vast majority of deserters are women. But without being legalized in China, they are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Some are sold as wives, often in rural areas. Others are forced to prostitute themselves or, like Mira, to enter the bad industry via a live webcam.
Upon her arrival at Yanji's apartment, "the director" finally revealed to Mira what her new job would be.
The man introduced her to a "mentor" with whom he would share the room. Mira should watch, learn and practice.
"I could not believe it, it was so humiliating as a woman to undress in front of other people." When I cried, they asked me if I cried because I was homesick. "
] Chun Kiwon
Mira (left) in conversation with Pastor Chun for details of the strike.
The web cam site and the vast majority of its users come from South Korea. They pay by the minute, so women are encouraged to keep the attention of the man as long as possible.
Whenever Mira hesitated or displayed fear, the director threatened to send her back to North Korea.
"All my parents work for the government and I would shame my family if I came back, and I would rather disappear like tobacco or die."
About nine women lived in the apartment. When Mira's first roommate ran away with another young woman, she was taken away with another group of women. It's like that that he met Jiyun.
Jiyun says that she worked hard for the group that explored her, believing that she would be released and that she could use money to help the family.
She only fell asleep four hours a night to reach the daily goal of $ 177 (about R $ 664). I was desperate to make money to help the family.
Sometimes, Jiyun comforts Mira by telling him not to rebel, but to negotiate with the director.
"First, work hard," said Mira. "And if the director does not release you, negotiate with him."
Jiyun says that during the years when he won more than other girls, the director treated her better than the others.
Image caption
Jiyun's business, after his escape from the apartment, is now part of his life. limited to a few face creams, paper towels, a comb and some makeup
The apartment was closely watched by the director's family. His parents were sleeping in the living room and guarding the locked door.
The director gives food to the girls and his brother, who live nearby, and go to the apartment every day to remove garbage.
"It was a complete confinement, worse than a prison," Jiyun said.
Young North Koreans were leaving the apartment every six months in general, or once a month, they were benefiting from it. In those rare moments, they would shop or cut their hair. But they were not allowed to talk to anyone.
"The director was very close to us because he was afraid we were going to escape," says Mira. "I wanted to walk freely, but I could not, we could not talk to anyone, even buying a bottle of water." I felt stupid.
The director appointed one of the women's apartment "director" and she was watching over others when he was not present.
All of Mira's property after the escape was limited to certain remedies, bandages and eye drops.
The director promised Mira that he would marry her with a good man if she worked hard. Jiun promised that she would allow him to get in touch with his family.
When Jiyun asked to release her, he said that she had to earn $ 53,200 to pay her "debt" during the trip. Then he said that he could not release her because she could not find coyotes to help her go home.
Mira and Jiyun have never seen the money earned through the videos. The director first said that once released, he would give them 30% of what they had charged. But Mira and Jiyun became more and more worried when they realized that they could never win their freedom.
"Suicide is not something I would normally think of committing, but I tried to take a drug overdose and jump out the window," Jiyun explains.
The years pbaded – five years for Mira and eight years for Jiyun.
Until a live Mira client with her webcam, which she had known for three years, understands the situation and decides to help her. He put him in touch with Pastor Chun Kiwon, who helped North Koreans escape the country for 20 years.
The client has also remotely installed an email application on Mira's computer so that she can communicate with the pastor.
The moment when Pastor Chun Kiwon receives a message saying that Mira and Jiyun are safe out of Chinese territory
Pastor Chun Kiwon is well known to North Korean deserters. North Korean public television often attacks it, calling it "hijacker". Since he founded his Christian NGO Durihana in 1999, he estimates he has helped 1,200 people to leave North Korea safely.
He receives two to three ransom demands a month, but finds the cases of Mira and Jiyun particularly troubling.
Durihana
Durihana
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Pastor Chun is Constantly the target of the North Korean state television for helping the escape of people who want to leave North Korea
Chun says the trafficking of deserted women has become more organized and North Korean border guards are involved.
The price of women can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Although official statistics are difficult to obtain, the United Nations has expressed concern about high rates of trafficking in North Korean women.
For 16 consecutive years, the US Department of State's report on trafficking in human beings has consistently ranked North Korea among the countries with the highest number of human trafficking cases in the world. Chun Kiwon
Image Legend
Pastor Chun Kiwon spotted the details of the escape of the two young women by the application used to convey badual images. This was the way found to not arouse the suspicions of the kidnappers
For one month, Chun stayed in touch with Mira and Jiyun via the webcam bad site posing as a client. In this way, the two young women could pretend to work while they planned to escape.
"The defectors of the prisoners usually have no idea where they are, because they are blindfolded or at night, but luckily Mira and Jiyun knew where they were in Yanji and could see the sign of a hotel in outside the city "window," said Chun.
By identifying the exact location on Google Maps, the pastor was able to send a volunteer from his organization to Durihana to prepare for the escape.
Leaving China is dangerous for anyone who has fled North Korea.
Most want to join a third country or embbady of South Korea, where they receive asylum and tickets for South Korea.
But traveling in China without a document of identity is dangerous.
"In the past, deserters were able to find a way to travel with a fake document, but today the authorities have electronic devices to check if an identity is true or false," says Chun .
After escaping from the apartment, Jiyun and Mira began crossing China with the help of volunteers from the Durihana NGO.
Without identity, it would be risky to enroll in hotels or youth hostels. So they slept on trains or spent sleepless nights in restaurants.
The last day of the trip, after climbing a mountain for five hours, finally crossed the border and entered a neighboring country of China. The road and the country from which they left China can not be revealed.
Jiyun's hands were scratched after five hours of climbing in the mountains to leave Chinese territory.
Twelve days after escaping from the apartment, Mira and Jiyun met Chun personally for the first time.
"I think I will not be totally safe until I become a South Korean citizen, but just meeting Pastor Chun has made me feel safe."
Together, they drove for another 27 hours to the nearest South Korean city.
After leaving China, the two girls entered an embbady in South Korea with Pastor Chun.
Chun says some North Koreans regard the latter part of the trip as particularly difficult because they are not used to traveling by car.
Shortly before arriving at the embbady, Jiyun smiled nervously and said that he felt like it.
"They often have seasickness and faint sometimes after so much vomiting.This is a terrible road, borrowed by those who are trying to escape." to cry.
"I felt like I was out of hell," Jiyun said. "There are a lot of feelings coming and going, maybe I will never see my family again if I go to South Korea, and I feel guilty, it was not my intention to leave."
Together, the pastor and young women walk through the door of the South Korean Embbady. Seconds later, only Chun returns. His mission was over.
Mira and Jiyun will take a direct flight to South Korea, where they will undergo a rigorous investigative procedure conducted by the national intelligence services. The goal is to check if they are not spies.
The two men will then spend three months in a settlement for North Koreans in Hanawon, where they will learn to adapt to the new life in South Korea.
South Korean refugees learn to shop in supermarkets. to use smartphones as well as the principles of the free-trade economy and are trained to get a job. They also receive advice.
After that, they officially become South Korean citizens.
"I want to lead a normal life by having a coffee in the restaurant and talking with friends," Jiyun said. . "Someone once said it would stop raining, but the rainy season was so long that I forgot that the sun existed."
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