North Korean Defectors as Cultural Other in South Korea: Perception and Construction of Cultural Differences

Background/Context: Every year, an unknown number of North Koreans flee their homeland. As of 2020, 33,752 North Koreans had arrived in South Korea. The political positioning of North Korean refugees in South Korean society is unique from other immigrants, in that they receive immediate South Korean citizenship and are considered members of the same ethnic group as South Koreans. However, North Korean refugees face discrimination in South Korea, including in schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This paper extends the use of the intersectional analytical framework, disability critical race theory (DisCrit), outside of western settings to the Korean context. The purpose is to analyze the schooling experiences of North Korean refugees in South Korea. We provide a background about the divide between the nations of North and South Korea and discuss how this divide contributes to North Korean refugees’ position as outsiders. We also situate discrimination faced by North Korean refugees within South Korea as a broader response to changing demographics, by highlighting the experiences of immigrants and South Korean multicultural education policy. Drawing upon the voices of North Korean refugees, we analyze how the discrimination they experience constructs them as less capable and valued than their South Korean peers. Research Design: This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that analyzes data from semi-structured interviews of North Korean refugees in South Korea. The interviews focus on participants’ schooling experiences in mainstream schools, at an alternative school, and in their transition to postsecondary education. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analysis demonstrates how North Korean refugee students are positioned as dis/abled and come to embody disabling conditions as a result of discrimination based on their ethnicized North Korean identity in South Korea. The construction of North Korean refugees as dis/abled reflects the dominance of the ideals of South Korean ethnicity and an educational ideology that promotes assimilation for economic growth. We conclude by discussing the impact of normalizing processes of ethnocentrism, racism, and ableism, and the potential future development of multicultural education in South Korea.

The recent dramatic increase of North Korean refugees in South Korea (called saeteomin, new settlers) has attracted the attention of scholars as well as practitioners not only because of their impact on South Korea and its citizens but, more significantly, because of their unique experiences there. They have encountered various hardships in South Korean society, including economic difficulties, maladjustment to schools, and emotional distance or isolation. This article attempts to illuminate and analyze the status of the North Korean refugees and their perceptions and emotions with respect to South Koreans.

This study investigates the effects of combined human capital of North and South Korea on the economic adjustment of North Korean defectors. Household income and job stability are used as outcome variables. Informal economic activities in North Korea exert a significant and positive impact on economic adjustment in the South. Membership in the Workers Party and time spent in the South positively affect household income. Overall, acquired human capital from North Korea appears more important than that obtained from the South. This finding has significant policy implications.

As of March 2024, 34,121 North Korean refugees reside in South Korea, with 12% enrolled in schools. Despite being automatically granted South Korean citizenship upon arrival, these refugees face social exclusion and marginalization, effectively forming a second class within South Korean society. The 70-year division between the two Koreans has resulted in vastly different lifestyle, making it challenging for North Korean refugees to adapt. This difficulty is compounded by a prejudiced social reception and discrimination toward their North Korean identity. The study aims to explore the daily experiences of North Korean refugees with their newfound South Korean citizenship, employing Straussian grounded theory and semi-structured interviews. The study recruited 17 North Korean refugees, including five with experience in elementary, middle and high schools, and five parents with school-going children. The findings reveal that academic deficits, exacerbated by discrimination and stereotypes linked to their North Korean identity, result in a disparity between their legal citizenship and school participation. In response, North Korean refugee students adopt a strategy of ‘being one of them,’ leveraging ethnic homogeneity to facilitate interactions with their South Korean peers. These interactions enable the formation of supportive networks and foster the development of an inter-Korean identity reflective of both Koreas. The study underscores the critical role of multicultural education in achieving educational equality for North Korean refugee students and advocates for social bridging programs that acknowledge and embrace the differences of refugees. Despite being granted citizenship, they continue to be treated as outsiders within South Korean society.

BackgroundThe number of North Korean defectors (NKDs) escaping to South Korea has increased. The health status of NKDs is an essential factor for a successful settlement into South Korean society. However, no studies have been conducted on the health status of NKDs in terms of education and social support. The aim of this study was to determine the associations of education and social support with the self-rated health status among NKDs.MethodsThis study utilized data gained from face-to-face interviews with 126 NKDs. A multivariable logistic regression and path analysis were performed to assess the effects of education in South Korea and social support on their self-rated health status and to explore the complex relationships between direct and indirect effects of the variables.ResultsNKDs who did not experience regular education in South Korea responded that they were in poor health compared to their counterpart (OR = 5.78). Although a direct association between education in South Korea and self-rated health was not shown, there was an indirect path from education in South Korea to self-rated health through social support.ConclusionsParticipation in regular education in South Korea is important for the health status of NKDs. Moreover, social support has an important role in the association between education and self-rated health. Social policies and NKD assistance programs should consider and reflect the combination of education and social support interventions relevant to the health status of NKDs.

Correlates of depressive symptoms among North Korean refugees adapting to South Korean society: The moderating role of perceived discrimination

Purpose: In this study, after the North Korean defectors enter into South Korea and undergo education and training for a certain period, they are transferred to the police and take the first step towards their settlement in the South Korean society under the protection of the security police for a certain period of time. This means that the security police officers are playing and performing such a crucial role in the process of their settlement and social adaptation for the North Korean defectors. Hence, the purpose of this study is to analyze the perception and attitude of the security police towards the North Korean defectors and explore a policy related plan for the impact on the North Korean defectors successful settlement in the South Korean society. Method: In this study, the perception and attitude towards the safety awareness of the North Korean defectors was analyzed through the Self-Administration Method applied survey of 100 police officers in the security department of the Police Human Resources Development Institute, which is the police educational institution of South Korea. Among the main variables for measurement, educational background, rank, and job acquisition path were used. In particular, among the various characteristics of security police, the study has focused on how the safety awareness of the North Korean defectors varies according to the educational background and rank job acquisition path of the security police department. Results: As a result of the analysis performed, it turned out that the higher the educational background of the security police, the higher the safety awareness of the North Korean defectors. Across most of the questions which demonstrated statistical significance in terms of the job acquisition path, it turned out that the security police officers from the executive candidates evaluated the safety awareness of the North Korean defectors far more positively than the general police officers or special recruits. Conclusion: In order for the security police officers from the relatively low educational background and the general police officers to renew more voluntary and active safety awareness of the North Korean defectors, it is first necessary to improve the overall job acquisition path of the entire police organization, including the security police. The negative evaluation of the North Korean defectors by the security police officers with a relatively low educational background and general police officers may be a kind of negative reaction to the problem which the security police organization is constantly undergoing changes according to the government s political inclinations. Hence, in the future, the government, political circles, and the police leaders should not make abrupt changes to the security police organization according to the government s political orientation and microscopic changes in terms of the inter-Korean relations.

How do North Korean refugees in South Korea utilize social support to cope with acculturative stress?

Purpose: The Korean Peninsula of the Northeast Asia is the only divided country in the world, and unlike South Korea, North Korea is isolated from against the rest of the international community due to the socialist ideology and oppression of its dictatorship, and the human rights of the North Koreans are very serious given the economic sanctions. The number of the North Korean defectors is increasing each day. Hence, through the job satisfaction according to the period of service of the security police, who can directly or indirectly support the North Korean defectors in South Korea, which is the most frequently selected by North Korean defectors, a plan for the North Korean defectors for settling in the South Korean society has been presented. Method: In this study, among police officers in the security department as of 2020 who had experience in work related North Korean defectors, 100 trainees in the Police Human Resources Development Institute were surveyed via self-administration method. Among the collected survey questionnaires, 91 were selected as valid samples, excluding those whose answers were incomplete or missing. Results: First, there is a difference in the job satisfaction according to the total period of service in the police organization. As a result of the analysis performed, Q-3 and Q-4 were high at the 5% level. As for Q-5, 20 years or longer turned out to be higher at 1% level than 6 or longer and 10 years and less and 11 or more years and 15 years or less. Q-3 is a response for “I have considerable discretion in performing my job.” Q-4 is a response for “I think that the division of duties and the relationship of authority and responsibility among the organizational employees are clarified and efficient work assignment is made.” Second, there is a difference in the police’s job satisfaction according to security and service period among police organizations. As a result of the analysis performed, at the level of 5%, as for Q-1, 10 years or longer turned out to be more satisfied with their current job and position as a police officer than 2 years or less. Q-1 is a response for I don t think the salary level is low compared to my job.“ Conclusion: Given the unfortunate political and historical experiences of the South Korean society, there is a critical perception of the security police, and it is necessary to strengthen the capabilities of the security police to support the North Korean defectors. Naturally, there may be criticisms as such, but it is worth considering schol-arly from the point of view of the modern liberal state philosophy such that the state exists to protect the lives and bodies of the people and human security, which has gradually expanded its scope entering the 21st century.

Collaborative witnessing is a form of “relational autoethnography” that allows interviews to be more informal and resembles a conversation rather than a structured question and answer format. Collaborative witnessing is the methodology utilized in this article, which is about the personal history of one North Korean defector, JeongOk Lee, who escaped to China twice and came to South Korea in 2004. Media and society refer to them as “North Korean defectors.” In this article, JeongOk shares her experience living in foreign countries through the stories and through three years of interviews. JeongOk provides stories and experiences in North Korea and South Korea. The conversations will reveal the hardships JeongOk experienced working in both North and South Korea. JeongOk experienced difficulties in language and work culture. Her experience resembles what many immigrants face when moving to a new country. These North Korean defectors, or refugees, should be viewed as immigrants through a multicultural lens rather than to focus on the controversial or political issues that arise when discussing North Korean refugees. North Korean refugees struggle to acclimate to South Korea’s culture, language, politics, lifestyle, and capitalist society. As a result, North Korea defectors feel alienated and isolated in South Korean society which makes it more difficult to build relationships. Viewing North Korean people through a multicultural lens could help promote better integration in South Korean society. For South Koreans to be more accepting and understanding of North Korean refugees, they must understand the hardships that North Korean refugees face.

While young South Koreans’ (SKs’) views on North Korean (NK) refugees, North Korea and Korean reunification have become increasingly negative or callous, less is understood about viable interventions to address their aggravating attitudes. Through the lens of Allport’s intergroup contact theory, the current study explored how SK college students’ friendships with NK refugees influence their perspectives on (a) attitudes towards NK refugees; (b) interest in North Korea; and (c) views about Korean reunification. We used a concurrent triangulation mixed‐methods design that integrates quantitative data via a survey and qualitative data via in‐depth interviews. Survey data drawn from 276 SK college students revealed that those with NK refugee friends showed more favourable attitudes towards the NK refugee population, greater interest in North Korea‐related issues and NK society, and more positive perspectives on Korean reunification. A cross‐analysis of in‐depth interviews with 11 SK college students who developed friendships with NK refugees yielded five primary domains: (a) initial occasion on which they met the NK refugee friend(s); (b) feelings and thoughts about friendships with NK refugee(s); (c) friendship‐induced changes in perceptions of the NK refugee population; (d) friendship‐induced changes in perceptions of North Korea; and (e) friendship‐induced changes in perceptions of Korean reunification. Based on the intergroup friendship’s promising effects that our findings suggest, we discussed the benefits of employing educational practices that could promote intergroup contacts and understandings of North Korea and the refugee population.

The aim of this article is to examine the structural conditions that affect the problem of North Korean refugees in South Korea. It provides a historical review of the changing perception and policy toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea, and how these changes and broader inter-Korean relations have affected the identities of North Korean refugees and the way of they have been dealt with. Understanding the evolution of South Korea’s policy toward North Korea and North Korean refugees is important because the policy is the output of the perceptions of political elites of the North Korean regime itself and North Koreans refugees in South Korea, and it involves decisions regarding who they are, why and to what extent should the state offer protection to them, and how to implement such policies. These political conditions constructed by the state and system of states directly and indirectly cause many of the difficulties, confusions, and problems facing North Korean refugees. In this sense, this paper argues that the causes, consequences, and responses to North Korean refugees are a part of much broader political, as well as humanitarian, issues. The paper focuses primarily on these factors affecting South Korea’s policy toward North Korean refugees and resultant changes in the status and treatment of those refugees in the Republic of Korea, or South Korea. This paper then explores the challenges that North Korean refugees face in the process of adjusting to South Korean society.

Two stage plays written after 2010 about North Korean defectors in South Korea are dealt with in this article, Mokran Eonni (Sister Mokran) and Toillit Pipeul (Toilet People). This article employs an analytical framework that weaves the terms of the immigrant and of the refugee and the sociology of the stranger together. The scenes from Mokran Eonni and Toillit Pipeul analyzed in this article acutely illustrate the pain and suffering experienced by North Korean defectors, especially socially powerless groups such as women and adolescents. Their position as refugees is constructed through exploitative capitalism and the division hysteria in South Korea. This representation leads audiences to examine how the latter two phenomena expose South Korean people as potential refugees. In other words, both plays do not just tell particular stories about North Korean defectors, they also offer a universal reflection regarding the structural ills in South Korean society. Moreover, this reflection is not limited to South Korean society. It can be repositioned as the speculation that all venues of transnational and global capitalist phenomena in which otherness is excluded and repressed have a migratory uprooted identity.

North Korea under the socialist system has a structure in which the type and site of work are determined according to the central policy rather than employment other than individual ability in choosing jobs for its residents. Since it is important for North Korea, which is pursuing a planned economy, to achieve production goals set in accordance with each economic sector's plan, groups take precedence over individual abilities at the work site, and there are few changes in the working environment, such as turnover or relocation of work, so efforts or activities to equip individuals with competitiveness in their activities are of little significance. Most of the North Korean defectors who entered South Korea were subordinated in such a working environment at the time of their repatriation. South Korea is making great efforts to increase the competitiveness of individuals seeking employment because economic activities are determined according to the principle of marketism. North Korean defectors who were accustomed to the socialist planned economy system had jobs, but it is difficult to settle smoothly in that employment for adaptation to South Korean society is mainly achieved through competition with the general public. With 34,000 North Korean defectors now, their successful settlement in South Korean society as a priming water for the unification of the Korean Peninsula is drawing attention as a very important issue. This is because economic independence and income are achieved through employment, and the settlement of economic stability leads to stable participation in South Korean society. The economic activities of North Korean defectors will reduce the loss of social costs for them in South Korean society as a whole, which will further benefit the South Korean economy, and serve as a cornerstone for future unification of the two Koreas. Therefore, this study aims to suggest the possibility of obtaining compulsory employment-type qualifications in consideration of educational background and career in North Korea as an institutional improvement plan for early settlement based on economic stability in South Korea.

North Korean refugees in South Korea have been reported as at higher risk of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, few studies have examined risk factors of IPV among North Korean refugees. This study aimed to report the prevalence of IPV against women among North Korean refugees, and compared the risk factors of IPV against women between South Koreans and North Korean refugees in South Korea. Data from a nationwide survey about domestic violence in South Korea were used. The rate of IPV against women by North Korean refugees was 57.1%, which is considerably higher than that of South Koreans (9.9%). The regression analysis indicated that North Korean refugees perpetrated partner violence against women more frequently than South Koreans, even after controlling for socioeconomic factors. Child abuse victimization and witnessing IPV between parents were the main factors of IPV against women among South Koreans. On the other hand, stress and a tolerant attitude toward using violence were significantly associated with IPV against women among North Korean refugees. The findings suggested that stress management and education on reducing tolerance to violence should be provided to prevent IPV against women among North Korean refugees.