Phantoms of the border
Director Harkjoon Lee, Dongkyun Ko and Hein S. Seok
Countries Korea, Republic of, France
Duration 52 min
Synopsis
On the border of China and North Korea, North Korean women are offered to Chinese brokers. They are sold on the human market to assure the subsistence of their remaining families. Becoming part of Chinese peasant families in the countryside, they work then in fields and on the farm and often become surrogate mothers. If they are discovered by Chinese police, they are arrested and sent back to North Korea. For them, there is a real dilemma: "Is it better to abandon the child and run away or to continue as is?"
To help the victims of this merciless system, where money is everything, an NGO helps the children concerned taking refuge in Thailand. From there, they might be adopted in the United States, in Europe, or sometimes in South Korea. Mi-jin, Hong-hi and Ji-young are three of these “phantoms” we filmed during their highly risky flight and onward journey.