This book examines the human rights abuses suffered by North Korean women and how some of these women are confronting this abuse through their activism. Based on this examination, I argue that – albeit with small numbers and slow progress – such a battle is critical for addressing North Korean women’s human rights. I further argue that tackling women’s rights issues will have a ripple effect on children and men due to overlapping characteristics that affect all North Koreans, together with their interconnected lives.

The economic crisis of the mid-1990s in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) brought some significant changes to the country. The food crisis forced women to take on the role of breadwinner, which challenged the conventional understanding of gender in North Korea and was consistent with the important role that women have played in other countries during times of famine (see Kinealy et al, 2016). This crisis also led to the exodus of many ordinary people to China, South Korea and Western countries, such as the UK, to find food and better lives; the majority of those who left were women: nearly 75 per cent of North Koreans who entered China (CRS, 2007) and 84.2 per cent who fled to South Korea (Ministry of Unification, 2022). However, despite these seemingly profound shifts in North Korean society (because of the famine and subsequent changes in the role of women as breadwinners), many would say that the human rights situation in the DPRK has not improved. Women’s human rights remain a serious concern that requires urgent and weighty action from powerful global actors and states. It is in this context that this book has been written.

When I started my research on North Korean defectors and their human rights activism in 2016, the gendered dimension emerged as a striking feature: women were shouldering the burden of feeding their families as well as being subjected to various forms of gender-based exploitation and violence. This led me to change the focus of my research to women and their lived experiences. It has not always been an easy journey for me because the majority of women understandably do not want to talk about their harrowing experiences. As I delved into North Korean defectors’ human rights activism in the UK, including women’s, I also realized that only a few individuals were involved in this activism.