Meanwhile I continue in the cycle of reporting which I have begun, and today is "interview" day. Interview 6 of the ‘03-'04 interviews by Refugees International (All available at http://refugeesinternational.org/ )

WOMAN, age 37, and her son, age 15

PLACE OF ORIGIN: unknown

FIRST ARRIVAL IN CHINA: Woman in 1999, her son June 2003

She is sad that she left her children in North Korea. Her other son, who is 13, is still there. Her plan was to come to China to find work and then go back to North Korea to help her family. When she came to China she came with a neighbor and he got arrested. She lived along the border for a year and found work in the quarry. She worked very hard cutting stones for three months but was paid nothing except room and board. She worked like a man, using dynamite to break up the rock formations. Then she went to another place to work in a quarry but again found no pay. She worked very hard there also.

In February 2003 she met a Korean-Chinese man who told her she'd have a good job in the northeast province of Heilongjiang, which is about 1,000 kilometers away. She agreed to go with him, but felt something was strange about this man. She heard him whispering about her to another man about how they might sell her. She pretended to go to the washroom and then fled to the railway station even though she didn't know any Chinese. She met another Korean-Chinese who helped her and wrote down how to get a ticket and travel. She had stayed in that province for one month and then returned in March 2003 by train.

Her son is happy that he has enough food, but he doesn't like his mother to complain about North Korea. He's patriotic. He wants to return to North Korea.