A Chinese free trade zone quietly looms just across the river. Image via Google. Don Kirk has been on the road through the wasted city of Hamhung , and has emerged from South Hamgyong province, cell phone finally in hand, to tell the tale. It is an important story from a great reporter. But what about those parts of North Korea even further beyond, Ryanggang province and North Hamgyong? What about Chongjin? What about Hyesan? Indeed, what about Hyesan? Apart from the occasional Daily NK article or intrepid Western photojournalist who plays chicken with KPA border guards like this instance , it is an area not frequently traveled by Western journalists or academics.
A few days ago, a Radio Free Asia report emerged that alleged that illegal abortions were on the rise in Hyesan:.
In addition, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, it is extremely difficult to procure contraceptive medications and devices that are traditionally smuggled out of China because of an increased clampdown by North Korean authorities on the already illegal products.
As a result, they said, young pregnant women concerned by an uncertain future in the impoverished nation are forced to turn to bribery to bring medical professionals and midwives into their homes to carry out the illicit abortion procedures. In addition to the dangers for pregnant women seeking out an illegal abortion, he said, the cost of bribing a team to carry out the procedure had nearly doubled recently.
For me, this news brought to mind a fall dispatch from the Daily NK in Chinese and its English translation which had indicated that a prostitution scandal had shaken the city. In the interest of providing more context for the current RFA story, I have gone back and expanded upon the earlier Daily NK translation about the practice of prostitution in Hyesan. My modified format has the original Chinese followed by my modified English version.
