Korean Wave making North Koreans rebellious against the regime
- Thread starter Korean
- Start date
North Korean defectors face discrimination in South Korea
34-year-old Kim Yeong-woon (a pseudonym), who graduated from a music college in North Korea and worked as as a singer before fleeing North Korea in 2001 and arriving in South Korea in July of 2004, said that in an interview on April 22 with the Dong-A Ilbo. She has not been able to find work in a long time, having previously been a freelance actress in musicals. Kim said, I formed a performance group with other North Korean refugees and put on shows in the provinces, but there has been one cancellation after another Time after time it seemed like North Korean performances made people uncomfortable.
With the sinking of the Cheonan said to be likely the result of a North Korean act, and the case of two North Korean spies being uncovered, North Korean fefugees are facing deepening anxiety. An increasing number of them are losing their jobs or feeling personally threatened as society shuns them. With two large problems likely caused by North Korea, they are being watched with critical eyes and are finding it difficult to settle in and live their lives.
50-year-old Kim Sae-yong, a member of the 새터민평양민족예술단, has more wrinkles around his eyes. Seven of his last nine scheduled performances were cancelled. Kim said, a lot of our performances have been cancelled over the Cheonan sinking, and other groups say theyre having similar problems that incident and the spy issue make people uneasy about watching North Korean performances.
Kim added: Basically law-abiding North Korean refugees are afraid of misunderstandings and suspicions. As soon as the spy incident came to light, many North Korean refugees began to feel personal threats. Kim said, Recently Ive been getting threatening phone calls from people who wont say who they are the police are telling us to be very careful about these phone calls. A North Korean refugee associated with The Daily NK (NK지식인연대
said, I was supposed to be hired by a shipbuilding company but when the spy incident came out I was suddenly considered suspicious and the offer was rescinded. Many told us they have similar stories.
43-year-old North Korean refugee Song Sun-yeong (a pseudonym), who works in a Mapo-gu restaurant, has been keeping her head down lately. Whenever a customer is watching news of the Cheonan sinking they say this must be North Koreas doing. Ms. Song said, I feel like I should be apologizing, that its our fault, and I hang my head. Her co-workers do the same, not saying what they really think. Ms. Song also never walks home at night by herself. Among North Korean refugees it is often said, there could be people watching for North Korean refugees, so dont walk alone at night. She said, even though Im used to the area Im afraid to walk by myself, so my husband comes to walk with me every night.
With ties between North and South Korea increasingly strained, an increasing number of North Korean refugees are worrying that their family members left behind in North Korea could now be spies. A member of The Daily NK said, there are children who worry that their families will be threatened and spies sent for them many, many refugees these days are trying to confirm that their family members are still alive.
30-year-old Lee Yeong-hwan, head of research at the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (북한인권시민연합, said, there are 20,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea, and most of them are in safe situations and are apparently not worried
its easy to feel worried when you have a lot of family members left behind in North Korea and such a short time to get used to the new country.
North Korean defectors face discrimination in South Korea | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
34-year-old Kim Yeong-woon (a pseudonym), who graduated from a music college in North Korea and worked as as a singer before fleeing North Korea in 2001 and arriving in South Korea in July of 2004, said that in an interview on April 22 with the Dong-A Ilbo. She has not been able to find work in a long time, having previously been a freelance actress in musicals. Kim said, I formed a performance group with other North Korean refugees and put on shows in the provinces, but there has been one cancellation after another Time after time it seemed like North Korean performances made people uncomfortable.
With the sinking of the Cheonan said to be likely the result of a North Korean act, and the case of two North Korean spies being uncovered, North Korean fefugees are facing deepening anxiety. An increasing number of them are losing their jobs or feeling personally threatened as society shuns them. With two large problems likely caused by North Korea, they are being watched with critical eyes and are finding it difficult to settle in and live their lives.
50-year-old Kim Sae-yong, a member of the 새터민평양민족예술단, has more wrinkles around his eyes. Seven of his last nine scheduled performances were cancelled. Kim said, a lot of our performances have been cancelled over the Cheonan sinking, and other groups say theyre having similar problems that incident and the spy issue make people uneasy about watching North Korean performances.
Kim added: Basically law-abiding North Korean refugees are afraid of misunderstandings and suspicions. As soon as the spy incident came to light, many North Korean refugees began to feel personal threats. Kim said, Recently Ive been getting threatening phone calls from people who wont say who they are the police are telling us to be very careful about these phone calls. A North Korean refugee associated with The Daily NK (NK지식인연대
said, I was supposed to be hired by a shipbuilding company but when the spy incident came out I was suddenly considered suspicious and the offer was rescinded. Many told us they have similar stories.43-year-old North Korean refugee Song Sun-yeong (a pseudonym), who works in a Mapo-gu restaurant, has been keeping her head down lately. Whenever a customer is watching news of the Cheonan sinking they say this must be North Koreas doing. Ms. Song said, I feel like I should be apologizing, that its our fault, and I hang my head. Her co-workers do the same, not saying what they really think. Ms. Song also never walks home at night by herself. Among North Korean refugees it is often said, there could be people watching for North Korean refugees, so dont walk alone at night. She said, even though Im used to the area Im afraid to walk by myself, so my husband comes to walk with me every night.
With ties between North and South Korea increasingly strained, an increasing number of North Korean refugees are worrying that their family members left behind in North Korea could now be spies. A member of The Daily NK said, there are children who worry that their families will be threatened and spies sent for them many, many refugees these days are trying to confirm that their family members are still alive.
30-year-old Lee Yeong-hwan, head of research at the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (북한인권시민연합
, said, there are 20,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea, and most of them are in safe situations and are apparently not worried
its easy to feel worried when you have a lot of family members left behind in North Korea and such a short time to get used to the new country.North Korean defectors face discrimination in South Korea | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South
Asia Report N°208
14 Jul 2011
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As the number of defectors from North Korea arriving in the South has surged in the past decade, there is a growing understanding of how difficult it would be to absorb a massive flow of refugees. South Korea is prosperous and generous, with a committed government and civil society, and yet refugees from the North almost all fail to integrate or thrive. Part of this is the change in the people coming; it is no longer just senior officials and fighter pilots who were useful and privileged propaganda tools. Nowadays many are women who have endured terrible deprivation in the North and abuse on their way to the South. Reconfiguring programs for defectors to take account of this change is essential if new defectors are to find a place in their new home.
The heart of the issue is humanitarian: those who arrive in the South are often fleeing material deprivation and political persecution and under South Korean law must be accepted and helped. But as with all humanitarian issues, it is complicated by politics. Defectors have been used by both sides. The South once rewarded them with wealth and public regard but that changed when rapprochement with the North began in the late 1990s. Defectors became something of an embarrassment, and policies to help them did not keep up with the numbers and types of people arriving.
As the difficulties of absorbing North Koreans become clear, the South is also wrestling with the possibility that it one day might have to handle a vast outflow of refugees from a collapsing North. The two sides of the Demilitarised Zone have diverged so much in economics, politics, language and social organisation that the people are now strangers to each other. South Korean law and opinion from some quarters would likely demand a rapid unification, but economic and social realities suggest such a move could be catastrophic. The difficulties of handling just over 20,000 refugees over a few decades should be a warning to those who wish to encourage the collapse of the North rather than a more gentle integration.
The divergences between North and South mean that defectors are on average significantly smaller, more poorly educated, less healthy and less likely to have useful skills. They must adapt to a country where credentials and networks are essential for finding jobs. They also come from a country where an all-powerful bureaucracy makes almost all decisions about their lives; there is almost no choice in education, employment or even food. New arrivals describe a bewildering rush of modernity, consumption and choice that rapidly overwhelms them. They also complain of discrimination by Southerners, who have stereotyped them as heavy drinkers, prone to crime, shirking work and relying on state handouts.
Many arrive nowadays suffering from serious physical and mental health problems, resulting in part from poor diet and trauma in the North and sometimes from abuse during their escape. South Korea is not well equipped to handle this: it has the highest suicide rate of wealthy countries and one of the poorest systems for providing mental health care. As more vulnerable people have begun to arrive, not enough has been done to accommodate their needs.
The South Korean government has devoted significant resources to helping defectors, but its efforts have often lagged behind new developments. The lavish welcome defectors received in the past has ended, and there is a more practical approach to education and integration, but as the arrivals have soared, facilities have not kept up. Civil society, particularly religious groups, has stepped up to help, but relations with the government are often strained. Better coordination of such efforts, improved oversight to determine what works and a more sensitive approach to discrimination are all needed.
Critically, policy on defectors needs to be insulated both from the occasional burst of belligerence from the North and from policy shifts in the South towards Pyongyang. What is clear is that the problems Northerners face on arrival take many years to resolve. What is needed is a long-term approach that allows a greater role for civil society and is less subject to change with each new government.
This report aims to draw attention to the challenges defectors have faced in integrating into the South, in the hope that the many international actors engaged with both Korea and refugee issues will devote more attention to planning for the possible need to accommodate much larger numbers due to conflict or other sudden major change on the Korean peninsula.
Among the issues to be tackled are:
•the government, particularly the Ministry of Unification, should endeavour to be more responsive to the needs of defectors by listening to civil society groups and those who come from the North;
•there is a need for greater oversight to ensure that money is allocated to those programs that meet defectors’ needs most closely. This could be a role for the newly established North Korean Refugees Foundation;
•the government needs to improve public awareness among South Koreans to increase tolerance for Northerners, as well as tough anti-discrimination laws and practices; and
•the international community should accept more refugees from the North and engage the South Korean government to provide help in such areas as English-language education.
Seoul/Brussels, 14 July 2011
Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South - International Crisis Group
---------------
South Korea is a cold-blooded country. This is one of many reasons that;
1) S Koreans killing sprees are atrociously known world-wide crimes such as Virginia Tech massacre, Oakland killing spree, etc. and in their own country. Just list a few:
Virginia Tech massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Woo BUN-KON - Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
Korean charged for murder of Pinay, six others in Oakland shooting spree | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere
S Korean soldier goes on killing spree - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
2) Many South Koreans hated their country so much so they flee to the US, making S Koreans a tiny bird poo size country the 7th largest source of US illegal immigrants:
I personally witnessed how SKorean teachers discipline their 4-5 year old kids: by sinking their evil teeth into the fresh of the tiny arms of the kids.
Such a horrific scene nobody could believe actually happen in a human world.
Asia Report N°208
14 Jul 2011
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As the number of defectors from North Korea arriving in the South has surged in the past decade, there is a growing understanding of how difficult it would be to absorb a massive flow of refugees. South Korea is prosperous and generous, with a committed government and civil society, and yet refugees from the North almost all fail to integrate or thrive. Part of this is the change in the people coming; it is no longer just senior officials and fighter pilots who were useful and privileged propaganda tools. Nowadays many are women who have endured terrible deprivation in the North and abuse on their way to the South. Reconfiguring programs for defectors to take account of this change is essential if new defectors are to find a place in their new home.
The heart of the issue is humanitarian: those who arrive in the South are often fleeing material deprivation and political persecution and under South Korean law must be accepted and helped. But as with all humanitarian issues, it is complicated by politics. Defectors have been used by both sides. The South once rewarded them with wealth and public regard but that changed when rapprochement with the North began in the late 1990s. Defectors became something of an embarrassment, and policies to help them did not keep up with the numbers and types of people arriving.
As the difficulties of absorbing North Koreans become clear, the South is also wrestling with the possibility that it one day might have to handle a vast outflow of refugees from a collapsing North. The two sides of the Demilitarised Zone have diverged so much in economics, politics, language and social organisation that the people are now strangers to each other. South Korean law and opinion from some quarters would likely demand a rapid unification, but economic and social realities suggest such a move could be catastrophic. The difficulties of handling just over 20,000 refugees over a few decades should be a warning to those who wish to encourage the collapse of the North rather than a more gentle integration.
The divergences between North and South mean that defectors are on average significantly smaller, more poorly educated, less healthy and less likely to have useful skills. They must adapt to a country where credentials and networks are essential for finding jobs. They also come from a country where an all-powerful bureaucracy makes almost all decisions about their lives; there is almost no choice in education, employment or even food. New arrivals describe a bewildering rush of modernity, consumption and choice that rapidly overwhelms them. They also complain of discrimination by Southerners, who have stereotyped them as heavy drinkers, prone to crime, shirking work and relying on state handouts.
Many arrive nowadays suffering from serious physical and mental health problems, resulting in part from poor diet and trauma in the North and sometimes from abuse during their escape. South Korea is not well equipped to handle this: it has the highest suicide rate of wealthy countries and one of the poorest systems for providing mental health care. As more vulnerable people have begun to arrive, not enough has been done to accommodate their needs.
The South Korean government has devoted significant resources to helping defectors, but its efforts have often lagged behind new developments. The lavish welcome defectors received in the past has ended, and there is a more practical approach to education and integration, but as the arrivals have soared, facilities have not kept up. Civil society, particularly religious groups, has stepped up to help, but relations with the government are often strained. Better coordination of such efforts, improved oversight to determine what works and a more sensitive approach to discrimination are all needed.
Critically, policy on defectors needs to be insulated both from the occasional burst of belligerence from the North and from policy shifts in the South towards Pyongyang. What is clear is that the problems Northerners face on arrival take many years to resolve. What is needed is a long-term approach that allows a greater role for civil society and is less subject to change with each new government.
This report aims to draw attention to the challenges defectors have faced in integrating into the South, in the hope that the many international actors engaged with both Korea and refugee issues will devote more attention to planning for the possible need to accommodate much larger numbers due to conflict or other sudden major change on the Korean peninsula.
Among the issues to be tackled are:
•the government, particularly the Ministry of Unification, should endeavour to be more responsive to the needs of defectors by listening to civil society groups and those who come from the North;
•there is a need for greater oversight to ensure that money is allocated to those programs that meet defectors’ needs most closely. This could be a role for the newly established North Korean Refugees Foundation;
•the government needs to improve public awareness among South Koreans to increase tolerance for Northerners, as well as tough anti-discrimination laws and practices; and
•the international community should accept more refugees from the North and engage the South Korean government to provide help in such areas as English-language education.
Seoul/Brussels, 14 July 2011
Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South - International Crisis Group
---------------
South Korea is a cold-blooded country. This is one of many reasons that;
1) S Koreans killing sprees are atrociously known world-wide crimes such as Virginia Tech massacre, Oakland killing spree, etc. and in their own country. Just list a few:
Virginia Tech massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Woo BUN-KON - Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
Korean charged for murder of Pinay, six others in Oakland shooting spree | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere
S Korean soldier goes on killing spree - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
2) Many South Koreans hated their country so much so they flee to the US, making S Koreans a tiny bird poo size country the 7th largest source of US illegal immigrants:
I personally witnessed how SKorean teachers discipline their 4-5 year old kids: by sinking their evil teeth into the fresh of the tiny arms of the kids.
Such a horrific scene nobody could believe actually happen in a human world.Similar threads
