30,000 refugees from North Korea have escaped Kim Jong Un’s repressive regime, writes Sokeel Park. 70% are women. Here’s why:

• North Korea is a patriarchal society with women having a lower status than men. This makes it easier for them to escape since they’re not expected to have the kind of initiative that escaping requires.
• There are also pull factors. Over in China the one-child policy has led to a low proportion of females, creating high demand for North Korean women as brides…and sex workers.
• Men, for their part, are required to spend their 20s doing military training in the interior of the country, far from external borders, making it difficult for them to escape during their prime years.
• Women might also be more likely to want to escape due to the South Korean television dramas that are smuggled into the country, which depict a level of freedom for women unthinkable in North Korea.

Read more here.

Source: Liberty in North Korea

Via: Marginal Revolution