30,000 North Korean children living in limbo in China

Campaigners appeal for help for children born to defectors who are not recognised as citizens by either Beijing or Pyongyang

A North Korean child peers through a window in Hyangsan province. Photograph: AP

Jenna Yoojin Yun-Friday 5 February 2016

Up to 30,000 children born to North Korean mothers who have fled the regime are living in China without access to schooling, health care or citizenship, MPs have heard.

North Korean human rights advocate Sungju Lee, a defector from the DPRK, said many of these children were born to women who had been sold to Chinese men by traffickers.

“These children, with no basic human rights, live as if they are not existing,” hetold the parliamentary group on North Korea.

He described the life of a seven-year-old boy in Jilin province. “The child was supposed to start going to school like other kids, but he wasn’t able to because he had no citizenship. He had no eduction and no friends.”

“Even when he felt sick, [his mother] couldn’t take him to hospital,” said Lee, “and she said that was the most painful moment for the mother to watch.”

The Korea Institute for National Unification estimates there are around 30,000stateless children in China, based on a research conducted in 2012. Exact figures are hard to detemine as North Korean refugees are forced to live below the radar in China to avoid deportation.

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