“Meticulously researched and highly insightful, Hyoungah Park’s North Korean Migrants in China not only provides a panoramic view of the movement of people from North Korea to South Korea via China and Southeast Asia, but also a captivating account and a probing analysis. This study is empirically rich and theoretically sound. Few books on human smuggling and trafficking can match the breadth, depth, and rigor of this work.”

Ko-lin Chin, Rutgers University

North Korean Migrants in China is a timely and important contribution, thoughtfully grounded in North Korea’s historical, political, and socioeconomic contexts. Hyoungah Park’s unprecedented access to the diverse stories of North Korean migrants emerges from his persistence, care, and empathy. The result is tremendous insight into the gendered dynamics and consequences of Chinese-North Korean relations and their impact on vulnerable migrants who take extraordinary risks to secure better lives but face trafficking, labor exploitation, and the dire threat of repatriation. This nuanced case study is a must read for scholars of trafficking and immigration.

Jody Miller, author of Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence