Final Cultural Project Presentation

[Esther Kwon]

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1k93ZqfYJoeSfN5F1Gn7nWwC84WQYOGDXJjFTgD29-Ek/edit#slide=id.p4

Notes:

• Rapid increase in the number of North Korean refugees entering South Korea after 1998, when several years of famine killed thousands, if not millions.
  • Lethal nature of the famine and estimate the number of deaths as low as 580,000 and as high as three million.
  • This famine occurred while the North Korean regime maintained an army of over one million under the infamous “son-gun” (military-first) policy.
• Women comprise over 65% of the number of North Korean defectors to South Korea.
  • Wider array of economic opportunities available to women in China such as waitress positions and babysitter jobs.
  • Darker explanation: Chinese or Korean-Chinese bride-brokers, or matchmakers, attempt to secure North Korean brides for Chinese men, often through trickery.                Also sold into prostitution.
• Physical differences in height and weight
  • 2010 study: The growth status of 1,406 North Korean refugee children aged 6 to 20 were compared to the same age group of South Korean children. North Korean boys and girls were significantly shorter and weighed less than their South Korean peers. Average height differences between the two groups were 10.1cm (~4 inches) for boys and 7.2cm (~3 inches) for girls. In case of body weights the differences were 11.1kg (~24.5 lbs) for boys and 3.8kg (~8.4 lbs) for girls. 
• PTSD:  North Korean refugees have typically been exposed to traumatic events, since many of them either witnessed or experienced violence within North Korea (Kang, 2011). Some were tortured or forcefully repatriated to North Korea from China while attempting to reach the south (Byun et al., 2006; Kim, 2010). 
  • 70% of North Korean refugees are female, and North Korean women are at high risk of being victims of sexual violence and exploitation as well as human trafficking either in North Korea or China
• According to a survey conducted by the Database Center for North Korean Human rights (NKDB) in 2012, 290 sexual violence cases were reported out of 8,703 witnesses.
  • In a recent study on the effects of PTSD (Choi et al., 2012), two thirds of 301 North Korean refugees surveyed showed PTSD symptoms such as insomnia and feeling of helplessness that made it difficult for those with the symptoms to hold steady jobs or perform well academically.
• North Korean refugee students often displayed PTSD symptoms (e.g., anxiety) that made their adjustment to school environment challenging (Jung et al., 2002).
  • Some teachers in the study also reported that North Korean students tended to display more aggressive and violent behaviors compared to South Korean students, again indicating high levels of anxiety among young North Korean refugees.
  • Same study found that some of the participants from the study mentioned loneliness from living without the family members indicating that there was little social support to alleviate their PTSD symptoms.
• Education gap: Almost all North Korean refugees are placed in lower grades with students who are younger than them, yet they find it difficult to catch up academically with their younger peers (Jung et al., 2002; Kim and Lee, 2013). 
  • These difficulties that young North Korean refugees experience translate to relatively high rates of school dropouts. The school dropout rate for North Korean students in middle and high schools combined ranged between 4.2% and 7.5% in the three years prior to 2014, compared to 1.2-1.3% among South Korean students in the same period. 
• A North Korean college student, Kim Seong-cheol, said in an interview with the New York Times, “I felt like someone from the 1970s who was put on a time machine and dropped in the 21st century”⁷. In fact, more than half of North Korean refugee students in college eventually drop out of college, increasing concerns that North Korean refugees will remain as “permanent underclass” in the South Korean society (Fackler, 2012).
• Socializing:
  • Refugees faced difficulties in abiding by the rules in the office, the amount of work, and difficulties in completing given tasks due to the inability to use the computer.
  • North Korean refugees regard their South Korean colleagues’ indirect way of communicating as ‘hypocritical’ because they were used to openly talking about their own and others’ wrongdoings through mutual- and self- criticism sessions that are deeply embedded in North Korean society.
  • Moreover, North Korean refugees in the workplace are cautious not to speak in their North Korean accent as not to reveal their background and identity to their South Korean colleagues (Choi and Park, 2011).
• A cursory reading of the public attitude towards the North Korean refugees shows a deteriorating trend.
  • In 2005, a poll survey conducted by the East Asia Institute (EAI) showed 75% of the participants expressed some degree of closeness towards the North Korean people, but the proportion dropped to 55.2% in the same EAI poll taken in 2010. Lee and Son (2011)’s study showed that South Koreans in their 20s as a whole had the most negative attitude towards North Korean refugees, in contrast to the sixty-or-older group.
  • This generational difference is likely due to the fact that the younger generation of South Koreans no longer consider North Koreans as part of the same nation, as the two Koreas have been separated for more than half a century. As the result, many North Korean refugees experience mistrust, unfair treatment, ostracism, and discrimination, even outright hostility, creating serious challenges to the prospect of successful resettlement (Choi and Kim, 2013).

 

My project focused on what it is like for North Korean defectors and refugees to live in South Korea and the hardships they focus due to mental trauma, physical deficiencies, and social pressures. I also focused on the growing trend of defectors coming from North Korea as well as the public attitude towards defectors which is sadly becoming more and more negative among the younger generations. The general conclusion of my presentation is that even though there is much ridicule and mockery of North Korea due to Kim Jong-Un's reign, it should still be recognized that many North Koreans are still starving and suffering and that defectors should be helped rather than rejected when escaping.