Married women in dandong

North Korea is one of the world's most hermit-like countries, so it's rare to get a chance to meet people who live there. But the Chinese border town of Dandong is different. There are North Korean businessmen, waitresses and drivers. Some even speak - and sing - in English. There is a seaside feel to this Chinese border town - its glitter-hard edge softened by the passage of river boats and wedding couples posing for photographs.

North Korean children left to fend for themselves in China are afforded no protection under the country's laws. A warning sign is shown on a barbed-wire fence separating China and North Korea, May 27, The seven boys and girls of elementary school age are playing a game with the foster mother who cares for them in spite of Chinese laws which forbid taking in a stranger's child as if it were one's own. According to the foster father, who preferred to remain anonymous, "It is illegal [so] we are not allowed to receive any foreign aid. It is obvious that none of their relatives can take care of these children," he said. Many of the children in his care were left stranded after their North Korean mothers were forcibly repatriated by Chinese authorities. According to year-old Yeon Ah, who draws repeated rainbow scenes of happy children running around, her favorite story is Cinderella.

The Decision to Flee Over the years, the predominant motivation for North Koreans deciding to cross the border into China has fluctuated somewhat. A political reason, or often a severe personal crisis that may have had a political dimension, has long been common, given that leaving North Korea is considered tantamount to treason. Desperate hunger and extreme poverty became a prime motivation at the height of the food shortages of the mid- to late 's. In more recent years, as the routes and costs of leaving became more widely known, the decision to leave may have become more calculated, though still grounded in a complex mix of personal, economic and political factors.

Photo: CFP. Newly hired North Korean hostesses, working at a North Korean restaurant, take an afternoon off to see their new neighborhood in Beijing. Three years ago, she was dispatched by her country to work as a waitress at Liujing Restaurant in Dandong, Liaoning Province, and has never gone home since. I really want to go back and reunite with my family," year-old Lu, a wide-eyed girl with a pleasant face, told the Global Times.