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Six years apart: A mother and son's perilous journey
On Christmas Eve 2020, Geumseong answered a call that brought tears of relief. His mother, Eunhee, whom he hadn't seen since their daring escape from North Korea in 2019, appeared on his screen in Seoul. The reunion was bittersweet-she was still trapped in China, and now, in 2026, she faces deportation back to North Korea, where human rights groups warn returnees face torture, forced labor, or execution.
The escape that split a family
Geumseong and Eunhee lived in a North Korean village near the Chinese border until 2019, enduring harsh conditions. "When she did difficult work, I helped her," Geumseong recalled. "Sometimes when she was overwhelmed and exhausted, we cried together." Their escape began at the Yalu River, a heavily fortified border patrolled by armed guards. After crossing into China, Eunhee revealed a devastating truth: she would be sold as a bride to a Chinese man to secure Geumseong's passage to South Korea.
Tens of thousands of North Korean women have been trafficked into forced marriages in China since the 1990s, according to rights groups. Eunhee's sacrifice allowed Geumseong to embark on a grueling two-month journey through China and Thailand. At one point, he collapsed from what was believed to be tuberculosis, but strangers carried him to safety. By 2019, he reached Seoul, where the South Korean government resettled him as a citizen.
A desperate attempt to reunite
For five years, Eunhee lived with the man she was sold to in northeastern China. Though he was kind, she longed for her son. In 2024, she decided to risk everything to join him in South Korea. Geumseong begged her not to go, fearing the consequences. On January 2, 2025, his worst fears were realized: Eunhee was arrested near the Myanmar border and imprisoned in northeastern China.
Geumseong has since pleaded with Chinese authorities to spare his mother. "I just want to ask them to please give her one more chance to live a normal life," he said. Beijing, however, maintains that North Korean defectors are "illegal immigrants," not refugees, and handles such cases "in the spirit of humanitarianism" under domestic and international law.
The risks of defection
Since the 1990s, around 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea, but the journey has grown deadlier. After the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea and China reinforced their border with double-layered fences and increased surveillance. In 2025, only 223 defectors reached South Korea-down from about 1,000 annually before 2020.
Those caught face severe punishment. In October 2023, two women were reportedly executed after being repatriated, and rights groups estimate up to 1,000 people have been forcibly returned since then. Geumseong fears his mother could share their fate. "I had no way of knowing whether you were alive or dead," Eunhee told him during their 2020 call, her voice breaking.
The plight of North Korean brides in China
Eunhee's story is not unique. The BBC, through intermediaries, communicated with four North Korean women living in China, whose accounts mirror those documented by human rights groups over the past two decades. Many are sold into marriages due to China's severe gender imbalance-an estimated 34 million more men than women, a legacy of the one-child policy and a cultural preference for sons.
One woman, sold at 16 to a man nearly twice her age, described being kept in a barn and raped before being introduced to his family. Another, in China for 15 years, said authorities regularly collect biometric data from North Korean brides to monitor them. "I am almost happy," she wrote, though her life remains precarious.
"They are never legal, never safe-stuck somewhere between being tolerated and controlled,"
Lina Yoon, Human Rights Watch
A plea for mercy
Geumseong refuses to give up. "I just want her to be allowed to stay in China and live a normal life beside her husband like before," he said. "I am simply begging China not to send her back to North Korea." For now, Eunhee remains in prison, her fate uncertain. Their story underscores the brutal choices faced by those who dare to escape North Korea-and the high cost of freedom.
