Living dangerously in two worlds: the risks and strategies of North Korean children in China

Many of the wandering children become habitual border-crossers to feed their families and to save themselves from a forced return. Under extreme hardship and fear, they develop transnational strategies and tactics to help them cope with the sharp contrasts in material conditions and cultural messages between the two countries.

Their childhoods under such marginal conditions leaves them at serious risk, and many of them bear deep psychological scars as a result. However, by becoming independent at a young age, they function as active ages for social change with a critical awareness grown from their contrasting experiences in two worlds.