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Korea, North Transnational Issues 2008

https://allcountries.org/wfb2008/korea_north/korea_north_issues.html
SOURCE: 2008 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK

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Disputes - international:
risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economic privation, and political oppression; North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers; Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic incidents in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern Limiting Line as a maritime boundary; North Korea supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 50,000-250,000 (government repression and famine) (2006)

Trafficking in persons:
current situation: North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation; North Korea's own system of political repression includes forced labor in a network of prison camps where an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 persons are incarcerated; the illegal status of North Koreans in China and other countries increases their vulnerability to trafficking schemes and sexual and physical abuse; North Koreans forcibly returned from China may be subject to hard labor in prison camps operated by the government
tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of them diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad while trafficking in narcotics, including two in Turkey in December 2004; police investigations in Taiwan and Japan in recent years have linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and methamphetamine, including an attempt by the North Korean merchant ship Pong Su to deliver 150 kg of heroin to Australia in April 2003


NOTE: The information regarding Korea, North on this page is re-published from the 2008 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Korea, North Transnational Issues 2008 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Korea, North Transnational Issues 2008 should be addressed to the CIA.



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