1 I. Introduction This research project primarily aims at examining and systematizing the reality of human rights violations faced by North Korean refugee women during their flight and resettlement. With the deterioration of economic conditions in the mid-1990s, many North Koreans crossed the Korean-Chinese border and went into China. Amongst these, some returned to North Korea after procuring food or daily necessities for the livelihood of their families left behind in North Korea, at times moving back and forth across the North Korean-Chinese border. Others remained and settled in China, while yet others migrated to third countries or came to the Republic of Korea. During these processes, many North Koreans had to endure serious human rights violations. Having more actively crossed the North Korean-Chinese border to secure their families’ survival, women in particular have suffered more severe human rights violations than their male counterparts not only because of their physical but also their social vulnerability. By researching the situation of these North Korean refugee women with regard to human rights violations and by systematizing the findings we wanted to make a contribution, however little, to the improvement of their human rights situation. On the issue of human rights violations against North Korean refugee women, numerous fact-finding studies as well as policy-oriented and academic research have already been conducted. They address infringements of refugee women’s human rights in the course of their flight from North Korea; in the course of their arrest in China and ‘repatriation’ to North Korea, and during their detention subsequent to their ‘repatriation’; during their migration to third countries and/or settlement there; in the course of their entry to South Korea including the processes of investigation and education that follow their entry, and, finally, during their lives in South Korea. This body of research has, using methods such as survey research and in-depth interviews, collated and systematized numerous cases of human rights violations that North Korean refugee women face, and, on this basis, political proposals for the