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CP Current Page:
World | Wednesday, June 12, 2019

color="purple">Pastor known as ‘Asian Schindler’ risks life to rescue
thousands of cybersex slaves in China

By class="reporter">Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter

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color="olive">△ A sex trafficking victim waits for customers. | (PHOTO: REUTERS/CLARO
CORTES)

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">A number of North Korean women trafficked to work in China's multimillion-dollar
sex trade have found freedom and healing thanks to the efforts of a South Korean
pastor known as the color="purple">“Asian Schindler.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">In an interview with CNN, a North Korea defector named lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="maroon">“Lee” color="navy"> shared how, for five years, she was imprisoned with a handful
of other girls in a tiny apartment in northeast China, after the broker she
trusted to plan her escape sold her to a cybersex operator for 30,000 yuan (about
$4,500).

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> 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 told CNN. 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 toward him.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">For years, Lee was forced to perform various sex acts in a chatroom
and was only permitted to leave the tiny apartment once every six months. Her
captor, a South Korean man, kept all the girls' money and physically abused
them if they dared to ask for compensation.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">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, leaving her with a permanent
limp.

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. color="blue">“During those outings, he would always stay right next to us,
so we never got to talk to anyone.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">But in 2018, everything changed.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“One of my customers realized I was North Korean and was being
held captive,” color="navy"> said Lee. 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 Chun Ki-Won, a South
Korean businessman-turned-pastor who has rescued hundreds of trafficked victims
from North Korea over the last few decades.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Chun has been nicknamed the color="purple">“Asian Schindler” color="navy">in Korean media for his efforts, after Oskar Schindler, the German
industrialist and Nazi Party member who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">In September 2018, Lee contacted Chun on KakaoTalk, a Korean messaging
service and wrote, 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">Over the following weeks, Lee explained to the pastor how she
had ended up in a cybersex chatroom and revealed her 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">During their webchat, he reportedly told Lee: 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"> Lee typed back as she began to cry: style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> 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;"> color="navy">In October last year, Chun dispatched a team to Yanji to extract
Lee and another girl named Kwang. The two women were lowered from the fourth-floor
apartment window using bedsheets tied together. Within minutes, they found themselves
traveling to South Korea in a car.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">After traveling for five days to south China, the women were smuggled
into a neighboring country, eventually seeking asylum at the South Korean Embassy.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Upon arrival in South Korea, the pair spent several months at
a processing center where they learned how to navigate common practices like
taking the subway, getting cash from an ATM and buying groceries in a supermarket.
Then, they were provided with a South Korean passport, a subsidized apartment,
and the right to enroll at a university for free.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Today, Lee hopes to become a teacher, while Kwang, who left school
at 12, wants 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">While the exact number of North Korean defectors who are forced
into human trafficking in China and other Asian nations is unclear, experts
say an increasing number of women are leaving the North to defect to South Korea.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">South Korea says it has welcomed more than 32,000 defectors since
1998. Last year alone, the country received 1,137 defectors - and a staggering
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="navy">Previously, Chun told NBC News that about 99% of defectors to
China enter the country via human trafficking.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Because there's high demand for women in China, people in China
will pay border patrol to bring women over,” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">he said. color="blue">“The North Koreans know that they're being sold when they escape,
so they naturally fall into human trafficking.”

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color="olive">△ color="olive">Pastor Chun Ki-won, founder of Durihana. | Durihana

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Chun’s Christian aid organization, Durihana - style="font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> color="navy">Korean for color="purple">“two become one” color="navy">- color="navy"> color="navy">has helped over 1,000 defectors reach Seoul since 1999. The group's
mission is to unite North and South Korea using the Gospel.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The organization’s website notes that Chun launched Durihana
after stumbling upon the body of a North Korean woman who froze to death while
trying to escape her country by crossing the river comprising the border between
North Korea and China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Upon seeing this, Chun left a lucrative business career, went
to seminary and became a pastor, dedicating his life to proclaiming the grace
of God to the North Korean people.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">In 2001, Chun was arrested in China at the China-Mongolia border
while helping a group of North Korean defectors escape. He was held in a Chinese
prison for nine months and finally released in August 2002.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Today, the rescues are more dangerous than ever, the pastor said,
especially with the advancement of technology. Additionally, North Korean dictator
Kim Jong Un has labeled Chun a color="blue">“cancer who should be eradicated.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“North Korea announces that they'll kill me once or twice a year,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he told NBC News. color="blue">“China is emphatic about wanting to capture me.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">But despite the risks, Chun said he will continue to help rescue
North Koreans from the color="blue">“physical and spiritual kingdom of darkness under which they
live; to proclaim to the North Korean people the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, and to compassionately serve and strengthen them as they rebuild their
lives color="blue">… color="blue">no matter what the cost.”