Sung, Kieun and Cho, Sunwoong. (2018). Why Are North Korean Women More Likely to Defect than North Korean Men?. Asian Women, 34(3), 97-118.
1. Introduction
This study shows that gendered defection is an unexpected consequence of North Korean government policies that generate favorable conditions for defection by North Korean females. The interplay between the strict military draft system targeting males and the marketization dominated by females facilitates North Korean women’s mobility and allows them to amass capital. As a result, North Korean women have a greater opportunity to escape from the country than men do. [98-99]
Rather than the gender dynamics developed by sending and receiving countries, a root cause of the feminized pattern lies in a “push force” on the social level and an opportunity on the individual level. [99]
2. Gendered Defection from North Korea
The residential and gender statistics for North Korean defectors from 2002 to 2016 differ significantly from the demographic profile of North Koreans as a whole. North Korean defectors who resided in the Hamgyong Province comprise more than 70% of all North Korean defectors, although the proportion of residents in Hamgyong Province is very small compared to the total North Korean population. [99]
This discrepancy between defectors and North Koreans as a whole reflects an unequal distribution of geographical opportunities to defect. Hamgyong Province, located in the north east part of North Korea, shares a border with China; the border control in this area is more relaxed than elsewhere. Thus, an individual living in Hamgyong Province has a much better opportunity to migrate illegally. [99-100]
3. Prior Studies: Individual and Social-Level Analyses
3.1 Individual-Level Analysis
Studies developed according to an individual-level analysis tried to dem onstrate the key determinants giving rise to an individual North Korean’s willingness to defect and those that generate an opportunity to leave North Korea. Individual willingness is attributed to economic and political factors (Haggard & Noland, 2010; Kim, 2003; Kim, 2010). [102-103]
The underlying assumption of this approach is that the most crucial factors determining an in dividual’s living standards are economic and political. In terms of economic factors, an individual who can consistently earn a living from her/his work place and can obtain sufficient food does not have a strong incentive to leave her/his own country. In terms of political factors, an individual who enjoys freedom and safety from government intrusion does not commit to abandoning her/his country. Thus, we can predict that the interplay between poverty, hunger, and political persecution will reinforce an individual North Korean’s willingness to defect from her/his own country. [103]
Previous studies concentrating on individual-level willingness and oppor tunity contribute to understanding the causes of North Korean defection, but they rarely account for why illegal migration is dominated by female North Koreans. The studies examining the individual-level factors cannot generate an answer to the question of why women’s willingness to defect is reinforced more than that of men. Moreover, the previous studies do not clearly explain why North Korean women have more opportunities to de fect than men [104]
3.2 Social-Level Analysis
The main framework of social-level studies addressing the causes of North Korean defection con sists of push and pull factors (Lee, 1966). The studies conducted with the sociopolitical lenses explore the domestic and international forces that push and pull the North Koreans toward one of the most dangerous pathways to defection. [104]
① Pushing Forces: The catastrophic food shortages and economic crisis in the 1990s / the weakening of state power [104]
② Pulling Forces: The South Korean government helps the defectors get a job and supports them in settling down by providing a sizable [상당한] supplementary living allowance. [104] / the degree of commitment toward control ling the border between North Korea and China [105]
The studies based on individual-level and social-level analysis reasonably hypothesize about the causes of North Korean de fections, and numerous empirical results confirm the propositions. However, previous studies cannot offer a clear answer as to why North Korean women are more likely to defect than North Korean men and why the gender im balance of the North Korean defection has increased. [105]
4. Unintended Consequences of North Korean Government Actions: Gender Imbalances in Defection
The economic crisis led to the collapse of the food rationing system and the malfunctioning of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP). Before the economic crisis, the total itarian rule of the North Korean government had relied heavily on a public food-distribution system and a restrictive social monitoring scheme, like other communist states. The North Korean population depended on food rations and jobs offered by the government. Using the food and job dis tribution framework, the North Korean government was able to control people’s residence, their movements, and their accumulation of capital. [106]
The serious economic downturn in the mid-1990s brought about the collapse of the public food-distribution system and weakened the state’s capacity to control the population. The consequences of undesirable economic and political conditions undermined the communist social-control system and disturbed the social order. To revitalize social control and surmount the economic difficulties, the North Korean government implemented two audacious [대담한] policies, the Military-First Policy [선군정치] and the Economic Management Improvement Measure. The two policies created unexpected outcomes whereby North Korean women gained mobility and were able to raise more capital than men could. Furthermore, the male-targeted military draft system stemming from the Military-First Policy, and the rise of female-dominated marketization––which is one measure of economic reform––boosted the gendered defection of the North Koreans [106]
4.1 Male-Targeted Military Draft System Stemming from the Military-First Policy
The Korean People’s Army (KPA) was chosen by Kim Jong-Il to resolve the nationwide crisis. Thus, the North Korean government adopted the Military-First Policy (Woo, 2014). [107]
Kim Jong-Il tried to restore his auto cratic social order by utilizing this relatively well-disciplined organization. In addition to political functions, economic and social tasks were also imposed on the KPA. Under the Military-First Policy, the North Korean government, through the mass media, introduced military troops as the paragon of a unique North Korean ideology emphasizing self-reliance (juche), in pursuit of restoring social order. Furthermore, numerous military troops were dispatched to construction sites, collective farms, and industrial facilities to compensate for the labor shortage (Vorontrov, 2006). Historically, North Korea has maintained massive armed forces to maintain a military advant age against South Korea. Now the KPA began to require more military personnel because of the social and economic role it was assigned by the North Korean government conducting the Military-First Policy [107]
To solve the shortage of eligible conscripts, the North Korean government drastically lowered the physical requirements for the draft and prolonged the duration of military service. [107]
① The KPA lowered the minimum physical requirements in 1994 from a height of 4.9 feet and a weight of 106 pounds to a height of 4.6 feet and a weight of 95 pounds. [107-108]
② the North Korean government pro claimed a new military service act requiring 10 years duration of military service from every man drafted in 2003; previously it had been five to eight years (Institute for Unification Education, 2015) [108]
More than 90% of North Korean males in their 20s are under the rigid control of the KPA, and their mobility is strictly regulated (Jung & Choi, 2007; Lee & Hong, 2011). Although the North Korean government promulgated a military draft law for female service in 2003, the duration of women’s military service is reportedly shorter than men’s and military service is not compulsory for every woman. [108]
4.2 Female-Dominated Marketization Advanced by Economic Reform
...utilizing capitalist market operations, is considered to be a success (Eberstadt, 2009; Lankov, 2009b; Yang, 2010). In 2002, the North Korean government relaxed the economic policy by which it regulates production and consumption on the national level and strictly prohibits businesses run by private owners. Small businesses producing and selling daily necessities were allowed and commodity markets were legalized by the “Economic Management Improvement Measure. [경제관리개선조치]” Even though excessive marketization––which ran counter to the central elements of a socialist economy––engendered a reversion to the previous planned economy and a reform of the currency, the North Korean government still sustains the policy that legalizes the commodity market and allows small private businesses. [109]
North Korean females, previously regarded as “revolutionary mothers of the socialist state,” are playing a leading role in the process of marketization. Numerous studies argue that North Korean women suffer from gender inequality at home and in the workplace, and bear the dual burden imposed by the roles of mother and worker (Kang, 2013; Lee, 2005; Ryang, 2000). A long-standing Confucian tradition and a patriarchal social agenda politically manipulated by autocratic rule are highlighted as factors marginalizing North Korean females and bringing about pervasive sexual discrimination. Nonetheless, North Korean women have come to dominate the commodity market legalized by the government. [109]
The considerable research into the North Korean commodity market reports that more than 70% of traders in the markets are female [109]
The workforce in light industries consisted largely of females, and thus the government’s policy of shutting down industrial facilities gen erated a mass gender-imbalanced dismissal. Moreover, North Korean wom en, rather than men became the main target of layoffs [..] While the men were expected to show up regularly in their workplaces, laid-off women came to trade in the market without workplace obligations. [110]
Female dominance in North Korean markets makes conditions more fa vorable for women to defect than men. In the process of illegal migration from North Korea, considerable sums of money are reportedly required for bribing the border guards and paying the guide. Feminized marketization provides women with a better opportunity to defect, and the rise of mar ketization facilitates the gender imbalance in the number of North Korean defection [110]
4.3 Interplay of the Military Draft System and Marketization
Two poli cies prompted by the great famine and economic crisis in the 1990s brought about unexpected results that facilitated North Korean females’ mobility and let them amass capital; eventually, the policies led to the gen dered illegal migration to South Korea. [110]