Wearing big black headphones and sitting on a blue floral bedspread, North Koreandefector Lee Yumi was video chatting with yet another stranger online, dark rings shading the pale skin under her eyes. For five years, Lee -- whose name has been changed for her safety -- says she had been imprisoned with a handful of other girls in a tiny apartment in northeast China, after the broker she trusted to plan her escape from North Korea sold her to a cybersex operator. Her captor allowed her to leave the apartment once every six months. Attempts to escape had failed.
Lee's story is shared by thousands of North Korean girls and women, some as young as 9 years old, who are being abducted or trafficked to work in China's multimillion-dollar sex trade, according to a report by the London-based non-profit organization Korea Future Initiative (KFI).
Lee's story is shared by thousands of North Korean girls and women, some as young as 9 years old, who are being abducted or trafficked to work in China's multimillion-dollar sex trade, according to a report by the London-based non-profit organization Korea Future Initiative (KFI).
