93 not live as a North Korean but tried to pass as a ‘Chosun-jok’ for fear of raising suspicions as is exemplified in the following: “When I was in China I worked in a family home, but in this house, too, they would say anything about North Koreans. When there was a murder case, [they said] it’s because North Koreans are here. Even when that wasn’t true, they talked like that. No matter how bad I felt listening to this, I had to suppress it inside and keep going. What is more, as I was working in a family home, when, for example, the owners would go on holiday all together, then how would they trust me with the house if they knew I was a North Korean? They wouldn’t know what to do fearing that this little thing from North Korea is stealing everything from the house”. Being forced to negate one’s nature and one’s home country, this ‘habit’ of self-denial also played out during the resettlement process in South Korea. The interviewees explain that whenever they start a job or when people ask, they reply, ‘Yes, I’m a Gyopo.’ “When we go somewhere and one of my husband’s friends says ‘I’m also a Gyopo, tell me more’, this really troubles me. That I could say something wrong and that they’d think, ‘This person definitely isn’t a Gyopo’. Back then I was worried that I would get caught when I’m doing things outside, and when I was at home, that I would get caught at home. Outside, I lived with my nerves on alert at all times fearing I would make a mistake. (Gil Gyeonghui, 2009, 1-7)” Whereas in China, North Korean refugee women pretended to be ‘Chosun-jok’ because of their lack of Chinese language skills, in South Korea they purport to be ‘Chosun-jok’ as a result of South Koreans’ hostility towards North Korea. 2) Deprived of the fundamental right to existence in third countries There are various ways for North Korean refugee women to come to South Korea: they try to enter foreign embassies, consulates or Chinese diplomatic service offices, or they forge documents and come directly from China by plane, or arrive on boats from North Korea, or come via third countries. As flying directly from China to South Korea costs a considerable amount of money, most women enter South Korea via third countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Mongolia. These women single out their experiences