That is the choice faced by thousands of North Korean women as they cross the Tumen River

Many North Koreans are so desperate to escape the country that they are prepared to risk their lives. For women the choice is stark: to die of hunger or be sold as brides in China.

The Tumen River, which divides China from North Korea, was frozen solid. We peered across to the North Korean side: the border guards’ wooden huts emitted no smoke, suggesting that they were unheated. Outside, it was -16° Celsius. A wolf-like dog scampered along the river, leaving pad-prints in the snow. There were human footprints, too – evidence of a patrol, maybe, or of refugees who had fled at night, so desperate to leave North Korea that they would risk freezing to death or being shot.

Some chance it across the river on their own, hiding in the mountains on the Chinese side, hoping to find farm work in exchange for food. A small number manage to link up with church networks that smuggle people through China and eventually to South Korea. For many women, however, the choice is stark: to die of hunger in North Korea or be sold into slavery in China.

As long as there is a demand for women in China, short-term solutions such as raising money to buy their freedom is not going to work (a farmer would just buy another one). The only leverage the Chinese have on these women are their illegal status in the country. Therefore, the only long-term solution is to push for the legalization of their status.

UNITED NATIONS: North Korea accused the United States of fabricating lies that it was diverting U.N. aid money to develop nuclear weapons and said it would accept an outside audit of U.N. operations unless the aim was to politicize aid to the country, according to a letter circulated Wednesday.

In the letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Pak Gil Yon also accused the United States of “hostile maneuvers” against his country in seeking an audit of the alleged misuse of aid money from the U.N. Development Program, known as UNDP.

Last month, the United States accused UNDP of funneling millions of dollars in cash aid to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s government to be used for “its own illicit purposes,” including possible nuclear weapons development. The U.S. demanded an outside audit, and Ban immediately ordered external audits of all U.N. programs in North Korea.

For all I know, the North Koreans could be right. What else could explain their initial willingness to accept external audits? Then again, the condition “politicize aid to the country” is fairly broad. After all, it is bad political policy that got North Korea in such need for aid in the first place. There’s no way to know until the auditors check it out themselves.

Update: Here’s what I think will happen. Auditor travel to Pyongyang. When they get there, a North Korean official hands over a neatly typed and organized account statement and tells the auditors to look at that. The auditors notice that it looks too impeccable asks if they can look around. Auditors told to leave. What I do not know is how will the new UN Secretary will react to such obstruction. Hopefully, not the way he responds to North Korean threats as Foreign Minister.

This is the biggest celebrity endorsement of our cause we are going to get

Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary has written a protest song about a Japanese schoolgirl abducted by North Korean agents in 1977.

Stookey, 69, sang ‘Song for Megumi’ _ the title track of his new album _ at a performance Tuesday attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Megumi Yokota’s parents, Shigeru and Sakie Yokota.

Some of the lyrics are in Japanese. ‘Anata wa doko? (Where are you?),’ Stookey sang at the performance, televised by public broadcaster NHK.

Here’s the segment