lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Jilin, China (CNN)Wearing big black headphones and sitting on
a blue floral bedspread, North Korean defector Lee Yumi was video chatting with
yet another stranger online, dark rings shading the pale skin under her eyes.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">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.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">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).

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">North Korean women are often enslaved in brothels, sold into repressive
marriages or made to perform graphic acts in front of webcams in satellite towns
near cities close to China's border with North Korea, the KFI found. If caught
by the Chinese color="navy">authorities, they face repatriation to North Korea where defectors
are often tortured. CNN was not able to independently verify claims made in
the report.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Lee, however, had just found a lifeline. The stranger the 28-year-old
was talking to online was not a cybersex customer. He was a South Korean pastor
-- and he had promised to save her.

color="navy">Read More

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Don't worry, we are going to rescue you,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he said.

color="navy">Lee smiled weakly and started to tear up, before typing back:
color="blue">“Thank you. I'm afraid.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> size="3" color="blue">A ray of light

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">It was during the summer of 2018 that Lee finally saw her chance
to escape.

color="blue">“One of my customers realized I was North Korean and was being
held captive,” color="navy"> said Lee. While most men probably knew the girls weren't South
Korean, because North Koreans have different accents and dialects to people
in the south, they chose to look the other way.

color="navy">This man was different.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“He bought a laptop and let me take control of the screen remotely,
so I could send messages without my boss noticing,” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> Lee said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The man also gave her the phone number of a South Korean pastor
named Chun Ki-Won.

border="0">

color="olive">▲ color="olive">Pastor Chun Ki-Won has been helping North Korean defectors flee
for 20 years. He has been nicknamed the Asian Schindler.

color="navy">Chun, a mild-mannered man with high cheekbones and wavy gray hair,
is one of a band of Korean pastors who specialize in helping North Korean women
escape from China. Chun said his Christian aid organization, Durihana, has helped
over 1,000 defectors reach Seoul since 1999. Korean media has nicknamed him
the Asian Schindler, after the German industrialist and Nazi Party member who
saved the lives of 1,200 Jews.

color="blue">“In the past few years, dozens of missionaries linked to my organization
have been deported from China, color="navy">” he said from his Seoul office that overflowed with plants,
books and religious figurines. color="blue"> “There are only a few left, and they have to stay on the move
constantly to avoid being arrested. color="blue">”

color="navy">China is a close ally of Pyongyang and doesn't consider North
Korean defectors refugees, instead seeing them as illegal economic migrants.
color="blue">“When it catches them, it sends them back (to North Korea), where
they face torture, internment in a labor camp and sometimes death,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> said Lee Eunkoo, the co-founder of Teach North Korean Refugees,
an NGO that helps defectors learn English.

color="navy">In September 2018, Lee contacted Pastor Chun on KakaoTalk, a Korean
messaging service.

color="blue">“Hi, I want to go to South Korea. Can you help me?” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> read the first message she sent.

color="navy">Over the following weeks, Lee explained to Chun how she had ended
up in a cybersex chatroom. He asked her about the apartment's layout and her
boss' comings and goings.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">By mid-October a plan had been hatched: Chun would send a team
to Yanji to extract Lee and Kwang.

border="0">

style="font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="olive">▲ color="olive">Lee Yumi and Kwang Ha-Yoon escaping from the cybersex chatroom
where they were held captive. They used a rope to reach the ground from the
fourth floor.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">On October 26, while Yumi's boss was away for the day, Durihana's
members arrived at the foot of the building. The two girls knotted their bedsheets
together and dropped them out of their window. The extraction team then tied
a rope to the sheets, which the girls pulled up and used to lower themselves
safely to the ground.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">They were only able to take a small backpack with a couple of
essentials -- a pack of wet wipes and a comb. They jumped into a car and sped
away.

color="navy">The whole operation took minutes.

size="3" color="blue">Journey to the south

color="navy">Korean pastors have set up a network of routes and safe houses
in China inspired by the Underground Railroad, the secret passages enslaved
African-Americans used to escape to free states from the late 1700s until the
US Civil War.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Each individual cell knows nothing about the other ones, to
avoid compromising the whole operation if one of them gets caught,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> said Tim Peters, the American pastor living in Seoul who is helping
North Koreans flee.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Before 1998, defectors would simply knock on the door of the South
Korean consulate general in Shenyang, the capital of neighboring Liaoning province,
around 790 kilometers (490 miles) from the border with North Korea.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">But during the Sunshine Policy era (1998 to 2008), which saw a
rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang, several refugees were deported to
North Korea from the Shenyang consulate, according to the book lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground
Railroad” color="navy"> by Melanie Kirkpatrick. Defectors then started crossing the Gobi
desert into Mongolia, aiming to reach the South Korean embassy in the capital.
But that route closed in 2010, when Ulaanbaatar reinstated strong diplomatic
links with North Korea.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The only option left was to go south through China, hoping to
reach a country that wouldn't send North Korean refugees home.

border="0">

color="olive">▲ color="olive">Lee Yumi and Kwang Ha-Yoon have just arrived in the capital of
a Southeast Asian country, after crossing the border with China on foot illegally.
They have been traveling for 50 hours.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">After escaping Yanji, Lee and Kwang said they went across China
on buses and trains using fake Korean passports. Their last stop was Kunming,
in China's deep southwest. From there, most defectors cross the border illegally
into Laos or Myanmar and either head for the South Korean Embassy in the capital
cities of those countries, or continue to Bangkok, in Thailand. CNN has not
revealed which country Lee and Kwang traveled to for security reasons.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Lee and Kwang met with a Chinese man who took them across the
mountains into a neighboring country.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“We walked for five hours through the jungle, before reaching
a road where a car was waiting for us,” color="navy"> said Kwang. Chun later met them in the middle of the night on
the side of a road. color="blue"> “I burst into tears as soon as I saw him,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> said Kwang, who is now 24 years old. “For the first time in
a very long time, I felt safe.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">After two more days of traveling by car and bus, they reached
the capital city. color="blue">“We were stopped several times by the police for routine checks,
I was terrified,” color="navy"> said Kwang.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">In total, they said their journey from Kunming took 50 hours.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">As they rode towards the embassy in a tuk tuk, Lee stared giddily
at the urban landscape unfolding before her eyes. style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“I'm so happy!” color="navy"> she said, as the embassy approached. Kwang was more nervous. lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue"> “I know I should feel joy, but I just feel empty,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> she said. color="blue">“I don't know what to expect, and I am afraid of the interrogations
at the embassy.”

border="0">

color="olive">▲ color="olive">Pastor Chun Ki-Won joined the women along the way, after meeting
them on the side of a road in the middle of the night.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">At 5.30 p.m., the two defectors and Chun walked up to the black
and golden gate of Seoul's diplomatic representation. Before they had a chance
to ring the bell, they said a man in a black shirt opened the door and ushered
them inside with a smile.

color="navy">A few minutes later, Chun walked out color="navy">? color="navy">alone.

color="navy">The embassy, which receives about 10 defectors a month, according
to officials, kept the women for about 10 days for questioning. Those who satisfy
the questioning process will fly to freedom in South Korea.

color="navy">Upon arrival in South Korea, defectors spend three months at Hanawon,
a processing center where they learn how to navigate staples of modern life
such as taking the subway, getting cash from an ATM or buying groceries in a
supermarket. They are then provided with a South Korean passport, a subsidized
apartment and the right to enroll at a university for free.

color="navy">Before entering the South Korean Embassy, Lee had given her new
life a lot of thought.

color="blue">“I want to study English and Chinese and maybe become a teacher,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> she said.

color="navy">Kwang, who had left school at 12, hoped to graduate.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“I never really had the luxury of wondering what to do with my
life,” color="navy"> she said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Kwang, who had left school at 12, hoped to graduate.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“I never really had the luxury of wondering what to do with my
life,” color="navy"> she said.

size="3" color="blue">Escape from North Korea There

color="navy">are no official statistics showing exactly how many North Koreans
have fled their country, which is home to about 25 million people. South Korea
says it has welcomed more than 32,000 defectors since 1998. Last year alone,
the country received 1,137 defectors -- and 85% of them were women.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“It is much easier for them to flee, because they are not usually
enrolled in formal employment at a factory or a state firm where any absence
would be immediately reported,” color="navy"> said Yeo Sang Yoon, from the Database Center for North Korean
Human Rights, an NGO in Seoul. color="blue">“They are in charge of the household and can thus slip away unnoticed.”

border="0">

color="navy">One day, after getting into a fight with them, she decided to
cross the border into China. Lee said she found a broker to facilitate the dangerous
move who promised her a job in a restaurant.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">That promise turned out to be a lie.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Usually, women like Lee pay brokers $500 to $1,000 to organize
their safe passage to China, according to NGOs and defector accounts.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">To reach China, many defectors cross the Tumen River that separates
North Korea from China on foot at night, sometimes in freezing weather with
the water coming up to their shoulders.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">After Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011, border security was tightened
to avoid the bad publicity associated with defections and prevent information
about North Korea trickling into the country, according to Tim Peters, an American
pastor who co-founded an NGO called Helping Hands that helps defectors flee.
An electric fence was added, as well as cameras at the border.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“On the Chinese side, patrols were also increased because Beijing
is afraid an influx of refugees could destabilize its own regime,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he added.

border="0"> color="olive">▲ color="olive">North Korea is visible from Yanji in China.

color="navy">Two huge portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il hang at the
entrance of a bridge linking the two countries.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Once on Chinese soil, defectors must reach the city of Tumen that
sits right up against the icy river, in a lunar landscape of barren hills. North
Korea is visible from the town -- farmers in a village there can be seen plowing
their fields with antique machinery.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Lee crossed the Tumen River in a group of eight girls.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">When she arrived in China, Lee said she was taken to a apartment
on the fourth floor of a pale yellow building in Yanji, a city in Jilin province
about 50 kilometers from Tumen, where most signs are written in Korean and Chinese
and scores of restaurants sell bibimbap and kimchi, due to the large population
of ethnic Koreans.

border="0"> color="olive">▲ color="olive">Yanji has a large population of ethnic Koreans. Many signs are
written in Korean.

color="navy">At the apartment, she realized there was no restaurant job.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Instead, Lee said her broker had sold her for 30,000 yuan (about
$4,500) to the operator of a cybersex chatroom.

color="blue">“When I found out, I felt so humiliated,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">she whispered. color="blue"> “I started crying and asked to leave, but the boss said he had
paid a lot of money for me and I now had a debt towards him.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Korean NGOs estimate that 70% to 80% of North Korean women who
make it to China are trafficked, for between 6,000 and 30,000 yuan ($890 to
$4,500), depending on their age and beauty.

color="navy">Some are sold as brides to Chinese farmers; more recently, girls
have increasingly been trafficked into the cybersex industry, according to the
KFI.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Rising wages in northern China cities have led to a greater demand
for prostitutes among the male population, according to the KFI report. In southern
China, trafficked women from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia has typically met that
demand. But in northeastern provinces, men have turned to North Korean refugees.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">A spokesperson for the Chinese government said in a statement
to CNN: color="blue">“I want to stress that the Chinese government pays high attention
to foreign citizens' legitimate rights according to law, also combat activities
of human trafficking women and child.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Michael Glendinning, director of the KFI, said the Chinese government
was color="blue">“not doing enough to protect North Korean women and girls in
its territory at all.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“China must work to crack down on the networks and individuals
-- including Chinese public officials -- responsible for the trafficking of
North Korean women and girls,” color="navy"> he said. color="blue">“But it must do so in a way that ensures that these women and
girls are not repatriated to North Korea where they would face torture, imprisonment,
and possibly extrajudicial killing.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Two other North Korean women already lived in the two-bedroom
apartment Lee was delivered to. One was 27 years old, had her own bedroom and
seemed close to the chatroom boss. “I think she was supposed to spy on us,”
said Lee.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The other girl was Kwang Ha-Yoon, whose name has been changed
to protect her identity for her safety. Kwang was 19 years old and had been
locked up for two years when Lee arrived.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“My parents split up when I was very young and I grew up with
my mother and grandparents,” color="navy"> she said. color="blue">“We never had enough to eat.” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> Kwang left North Korea to earn money to send to her family. “Both
my mother and my grandmother had cancer and needed treatment,” she said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">But all the money Kwang earned in China went to her captor.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Lee and Kwang had to share a room.

color="blue">“The only furniture was two beds, two tables and two computers,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> recalled Kwang. color="blue">“Every morning, I would get up around 11 a.m., have breakfast
and then start working until dawn the next day.” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> Sometimes, she would only get four hours of sleep. If they complained,
they would get beaten, although both women said they did not suffer sexual abuse
by their captor.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Work involved logging onto an online chat platform on which South
Korean men can pay to watch girls perform sexual acts.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Within minutes of logging on to the site, users are barraged by
women on the platform sending text messages asking for a video chat in a private
room.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">They all claim to be from a major city in South Korea. The minimum
price to chat on the site is 150 won (13 cents), but girls can set the entry
price for a room, with popular accounts tending to have a more expensive entry
fee. Tips start at a minimum of 300 won (25 cents), but can go far higher as
customers try to persuade the girls to fulfill their requests. Lee and Kwang
were tasked by their captors with keeping the men online for as long as possible.
In South Korea, where prostitution is illegal, these services have become increasingly
popular in recent years.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">CNN reached out to the platform to ask what steps it takes to
protect women like Lee and Kwang on its site, but the company did not respond.

color="blue">“Some of the men just wanted to talk, but most wanted more,”
color="navy">said Lee, with a shudder of disgust. style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“They would ask me to take suggestive poses or to undress and
touch myself. I had to do everything they asked.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“I felt like dying 1,000 times, but I couldn't even kill myself
as the boss was always watching us,” color="navy">she said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Her captor was a man of South Korean descent who slept in the
living room to keep a close eye on the women.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“The front door was always locked from the outside and there
was no handle on the inside,” color="navy"> said Kwang. color="blue"> “Every six months, he would take us out to the park.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">On this small patch of green next to their apartment, retirees
would meet to dance to music each afternoon.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“During those outings, he would always stay right next to us,
so we never got to talk to anyone,” color="navy">said Lee. In 2015, Lee tried to escape by climbing out of a window
and down a metal drain, but she fell and hurt her back and leg. She still limps
slightly.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">When their captor wanted something from the girls, he would try
to sweet talk them, promising a cut of their earnings or to let them go free
to work in South Korea one day.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">But when Kwang asked for a piece of the 60 million won (around
$51,000) she estimated she had made for him, he got angry.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“He started kicking, slapping and cursing me,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> she said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">During the seven years Kwang spent locked up in his apartment,
she said he never gave her a cent.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="olive">CNN's Jake Kwon also contributed to this report. lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;">