According to the reports, some of the girls are barely 13 when they are selected for their future "job." When picked, schoolgirls are thoroughly examined to make sure that their lineage is clean, that they are in good health and, naturally, virginal. Defectors say they also must meet strict physical requirements.
After the inspection they are separated from their families — many relatives never learn where they go — to be trained. Often they go abroad for months to study massage or learn to sing and dance professionally.
One of the defectors, Mi-Hyang, who successfully escaped to South Korea, claimed that she had been ‘serving' Kim Jong-il for two years. In a 2010 interview to Marie Claire she recalled how, when she was 15, two soldiers stormed into her classroom and pointed to her, after scanning the room.
Another North Korean escapee and asylum seeker, Jang Jin-Sung, wrote in a memoir that the prettiest girls in North Korea were often called ‘Section Five' girls, as they would likely be forced into service by Section 5 of the Organisation and Guidance Department, the group responsible for Kim Jong-il's private life.
Lee Il-Nam, Kim Jong-il's nephew, wrote in a memoir before his assassination, that closed parties were common at Kim's official residence in Pyongyang, and usually centered on alcohol, sex, and extravagant food.
"The routine at the parties included eating, drinking and dancing, but usually ended with erotic games," he wrote.
The girls reportedly retire at age 22-25, after serving for about a decade. Then they are either married off to personal guards and senior cadres, or sent back home under a condition of secrecy.
At the end of 2011, when Kim Jong-il died, his group of girls was disbanded and allowed to return to their families.
The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported six months after Kim Jong-il's death that Kim Jong-un was seeking new "entertainers" for his Pleasure Squad.
