79 that done for me… Then they said that it didn’t work out this time, that they’re sorry, that we should do it next time again, so I worked on the farm for another year but at that time the rice prices hit the bottom, at that time in 2002. So the rice wasn’t sold but some hundred rice bags were left untouched in the stores. (Mun Gyeongsun, 2009, 2-7) When Hwang Sunjeong (2009, 1-1) describes her life without identity documents, i.e. her fears caused by the impossibility of obtaining recognition as a ‘national citizen’ and a life full of anxieties, she states that for North Korean refugee women the most emotional moment in South Korea is the moment when they receive their ‘Residents’ Registration Card’. That is also why Mun Gyeongsun (2009: 2-7) worked assiduously, raising ducks and chicken and helping with farm work on almost 30,000m2 of land, in the hope of ‘producing’ identity documents; however, when the farmers she worked for and lived with did not put her on the family registry, she eventually left. Even though in North Korea women were in a position of ‘second-class nationals’, there they at least had access to legal procedures and possessed a social status which provided them with channels for dealing with any problems which occurred. On the other hand, in China, because they were not even afforded a status, “when you look at some mothers, one woman’s daughter was killed with a knife, one woman’s son was shot with a gun and died, there are more than just one or two people whose stories are heartbreaking. … She couldn’t even get close to the place where her daughter’s body was. Because the security police were standing right in the way, because if she went over, she would be arrested, so she couldn’t go over to her even though she could see her daughter’s body.” Because she could not assure her own safety, she could do nothing but walk past. 2) Chased by the security police and vigilant against strangers In China, as a consequence of a life without citizenship, North Korean refugee women cannot keep living or working in the same place for long and are forced to move frequently as they are incessantly chased by the security police. In the case of women, because they went into families by getting married and because they have become a part of them, the family protects them. For example, when a