A North Korean defector support group says that eight to nine out of ten North Korean women experience human rights abuses, ranging from sexual abuse to human trafficking, when escaping North Korea.

Kim Seon-heui from North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said Friday at the Human Rights Day event in Seoul that brokers in China often sell women who defect from North Korea and when the women are deported back to the North, more women than men suffer human rights violations.

Kim added that it takes some three-million won for one person to cross the Tumen River, and another two-million to five-million won for the defectors to enter South Korea. In addition, Kim said the amount paid to brokers differs depending on the age of the defector and how they come to South Korea.