100 This narrator did not settle for the environment that was destined for her but led a self-determined life to an extent that she ran an alcohol factory, paid back in a year what she had borrowed and even saved up some money. However, this did not change her position as an illegal resident. Even when she ran the factory, the police demanded her to pay ‘penalties’; this also led to a deepening conflict with her husband. 4. Gender and trauma What women have to endure for the reason of being a woman includes violations of their rights to motherhood protection, domestic violence and sexual violence, as well as human trafficking. Human rights violations suffered because one is a woman constitute the most severe problem of North Korean refugee women in China. These women in particular are confronted with sexual violence and human trafficking. 1) The violation of rights to motherhood and resulting traumas Among North Korean refugee women in their 30s to 40s, there are many cases of women having left their young children behind in North Korea. The reason for leaving their children behind is that these women departed with the intention of returning after working in China for three to four days or a couple of months. They did not think of the possibility that their departure could lead to a permanent separation from their children. Thus, the main factor that helped North Korean refugee women bear the hard times they lived through in China was the thought of “my child, the guilty conscience that I wasn’t able to bring up my child and to put him in a good place.” Sleeping only two to three hours a day in order to work, “I got 2,600 Won while the Chosun-jok would get only 800 Won.” Working “for the company and, separately, at someone’s house as a care mother” was only tolerable “thinking of my child both when I was awake or asleep”. Whereas some North Korean refugee women went back to North Korea to take their children with them to China, in general, they became reunited with their children by