12 Kim Taehyeon and Roh Chiyeong (2003) 10 , employing a methodology called hermeneutic phenomenology, conducted in-depth interviews with North Korean refugee women. Hermeneutic phenomenology constitutes one form of qualitative research that seeks to inquire into subjective experiences in people’s daily life worlds; its primary aim lies in gaining an understanding for the lived experiences that people undergo in their everyday life worlds and for the meanings they attribute to their experiences. These scholars observed and described, from an ontological viewpoint and in great depth and complexity, the environment faced by North Korean refugee women. Key issues they established are despair over the unattainability of goals that women originally sought to accomplish through their flight, risks of exposure, getting married as a means to negotiate security, feeling discriminated as North Korean women, rediscovering the meaning of life in China, disguising themselves as Chinese women, hiding emotions, postponing pregnancy, being vigilant against the people around them, finding yet other ways to escape, etc. Moon Sookjae, Kim Jihee, and Lee Myunggeun (2000)11 also studied the situation of North Korean refugee women residing in China. These authors provided a description of North Korean refugee women’s motives and life conditions, analyzing, more specifically, what kind of lives North Korean refugee women lead in China and what human rights abuse situations they face. Min Jiwon (2003)12 conceptualised North Korean women from a gender perspective and dealt with the gendered oppression of women. Her study found gender oppression particularly in the criteria for decision-making on refugee status. Examples of gender oppression exercised by North Korean society against women that Min suggests in her study include, for example, the daily control of the private sphere, 10 Kim, Taehyeon; Roh, Chiyeong. 2003. Life stories of North Korean Female Defectors (1,2): Hermeneutic Analysis of Daily Life Experiences in China. Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association, Vol. 41, Nos. 8 and 11. Korean Home Economics Association. 11 Moon, Sookjae; Kim, Jihee; Lee, Myunggeun, 2000. Motives for Escape and Life Conditions of North Korean Women: On North Korean Refugee Women in the Yanbian Region of China. Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association, Vol. 38, No. 5. Korean Home Economics Association. 12 Min, Jiwon, 2003. Gender Oppression Exercised through Criteria for Decision-making on Refugee Status: On North Korean Refugee Women’s Possibilities to Attain Refugee Status. Women’s Studies Review, No. 20. Korean Women’s Institute, Ewha Women’s University.