A Human Rights Watch report based on interviews with 106 North Koreans who have left the country found the country's extremely patriarchal society means many women feel powerless to demand accountability over sexual violence, many are also ashamed of being abused, and some choose to keep silent because of flimsy law enforcement and support systems.
More than half the interviewees left the country after 2011.
Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth said in some instances officials demanded sexual favours from women in lieu of bribes.
"Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, unaddressed and widely tolerated secret," Mr Roth said in a statement.
According to the report, titled You Cry at Night but Don't Know Why, and also according to three women who left North Korea and three South Korean experts reached by the Associated Press, sexual violence targeting women is rampant in North Korea.
They say it happens in detention facilities, open markets, checkpoints, trains, streets and army bases.
They agreed that sexual violence is a serious problem in the North, though the voices and economic power of women have gradually increased in recent years because of their role in burgeoning capitalist-style markets.
Some said that North Korean women did not even understand that widespread assaults and harassment were abuse.
The report details sexual abuse by men in official positions of power, such as prison guards, police officers, prosecutors, soldiers and market supervisors.
"Interviewees told us that when a guard or police officer 'picks' a woman, she has no choice but to comply with any demands he makes, whether for sex, money, or other favours," the report said.
"Women in custody have little choice should they attempt to refuse or complain afterward, and risk sexual violence, longer periods in detention, beatings, forced labour, or increased scrutiny while conducting market activities."
One woman interviewed in the report said a police agent penetrated her several times with his fingers while questioning her illegal stay in China.
Another talked about women in a detention centre being forced to leave with a guard who raped them every night.
They said "click, click, click was the most horrible sound" because it meant the key was turning in the door of their prison cells.
Several traders also described male officials at checkpoints conducting intrusive body searches of young women.
Others in the report said police did not consider sexual violence a "serious crime" and that it was "almost inconceivable" to even consider going to the police to report their suffering because of possible repercussions.
A pervasive social stigma keeps victims silent, the report said, adding that all of the interviewees described "widespread impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence and lack of justice for survivors."
They also spoke of deeply embedded patterns of discrimination against women, corruption and a lack of support mechanisms.
Women who talked to the AP said they did not even know what exactly sexual abuse was when they were in North Korea.
"Higher-level male (army officers) often patted female soldiers on their hips and breasts or put their hands underneath their uniforms around their necks when they passed by them," said Lee So Yeon, a woman who served in the North's army before her 2008 escape.
"We saw these things lots of times, but we just thought they were specially favoured by our bosses."
A second woman said a detention centre guard tried to rape her but moved away after she said her body was crawling with lice.
A third woman said sexual abuse was considered shameful for women because people thought they must have brought it on themselves.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11...l-abuse-widely-tolerated-says-report/10457794
