Male Chinese citizens who are living in North Korea and
married to North Korean wives are paying thousands of dollars in bribes to
Party cadres to have their children registered as Chinese citizens on local
documents, Daily NK has learned.
“Hwagyo [Chinese citizens living abroad] husbands invariably
want their children registered as Chinese citizens, but local government
offices are in charge of such affairs and automatically register all children
born in the country as North Koreans,” a source in North Pyongan Province
told Daily NK in a recent telephone conversation. “So the only way to get their
registration changed is to pay a significant bribe to the local office.”
“The government offices typically demand around 3,000 USD in
bribes to have newborn hwagyo registered as Chinese,” the source said, adding,
“If they’ve already been registered as North Korean and they’re requesting a
change of status, officials demand an extra 1,000 USD.”
Hwagyo living in North Korea typically hold Chinese
citizenship, meaning they are relatively free to travel to and from from China,
barring any serious problems with their personal records. Given the rapid
growth of the markets throughout the country, this provides a significant
advantage for making money through cross-border trade.
This is spurring a growing preference for hwagyo men as
husbands in the North, and with full knowledge of this, Party cadres are reaping
whatever benefits they can, added the source.
“DonjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More (newly affluent middle class) women who marry hwagyo
are then able to make money by securing a monopoly over certain products
brought in from China,” the source explained. “Cadres know that these couples
are bound to apply for Chinese citizenship for their children, and they see it
as an opportunity to earn foreign currency in the form of bribes.”
It is not just the relative freedom to travel that
encourages families to obtain Chinese citizenship for their children, but the
idea that failure to do so will stigmatize their children for having a
foreigner as a father in a society based heavily on songbun (family political
background and loyalty). If the children remain North Korean citizens, they
will also have difficulty visiting their fathers’ families and hometowns in China.
These couples are therefore shelling out whatever they have
to ensure their children are registered as Chinese citizens.
“For hwagyo that in live in Pyongyang, Sinuiju, and other
large cities that have active trade with China, their living standards are
pretty good. But for those who live outside the urban areas, it can be a
struggle to get by,” a separate source in the capital said. “Even so, these poorer hwagyo will still
try to get their children’s citizenship changed by going to China and saving up
money while doing something like washing dishes at restaurants for two years.”
Parents see this as their duty for their children, and
regardless of how long anyone expects the North Korean regime to last, they
have come to believe that Chinese citizenship will always be more advantageous
in terms of making a living, added the Pyongyang-based source.
