Ryu, a North Korean woman, sits under a cross at a church in a remote village. Ryu was smuggled into China in June 1999 and later sold to a Chinese man as a bride for RMB 5,000 (US $600), she has since settled down at her husband's village and became a Christian a year ago. Many North Korean refugees have crossed the porous border into China to seek food and shelter with some of the women being sold as wives or prostitutes, many converts to Christianity as ethnic Korean churches often provide them with assistance.