Journey and Resettlement of North Korean Refugees
Daphne DiFrancesco
12/18/2020
Journey and Resettlement of North Korean Refugees
North Korean Defector Hyeonseo Lee soon realized the day she left her country would be one never to forget: “I’d only be away for a few days. I was so sure of this that I did not look back. So why did I get the feeling that my life was about to change forever?” For the North Korean people, escaping is one of the most dangerous things they will ever do, many of which do it alone, no help, going through unimaginable things just to reach freedom. Many North Koreans leave their home country for freedom and necessities, facing everything from crossing the river to china to sexual abduction by brokers. LiNK along with the South Korean government are organizations that help them make it out alive and provide saftey and much needed help along the way. The North Korean people are looked down upon almost everywhere in the world and forgotten by many; this needs to change.
A lot of things we hear about today in world news relate back to the dictator Kim Jong-un and the country his family has built: North Korea. The North Korean education system is centered around the Dear and Great Leader (s) who is currently Kim Jong-un. The citizens are taught to never betray or doubt the Great Leader and to believe he has fought and won every battle for their country. One of the biggest lies the people are taught is that Kim Jong-un single-handedly ended the Korean war with a win. Not only did he not emerge victorious, but the war didn’t technically end. Quoting Hyeonseo Lee, “History lessons were superficial. The past was not set-in stone and was occasionally rewritten.” Over the years, the North Korean people have figured out that this was true.
The main reasons people are fleeing North Korea is because of the famines and lack of medical care/prescriptions. “Political persecution” is also a major problem there, for everything they do and say is controlled, monitored, and punished (Skretteberg NRC news). Quoting Sarah Kim, “It’s illegal for North Koreans to leave the country without the regime’s permission. But every year thousands of North Koreans risk their lives trying to escape.” According to northkoreanrefugee.org, “A total of 1,055 North Korean refugees came to South Korea” in one year (northkoreanrefugee.org) 85% of them being women (Skretteberg NRC news). The total number that year combined with years in the past was 31,267 North Korean defectors which compared to the 5.6 million Syrian refugees there are, is nothing. Though there are over 30,000 North Korean refugees when Kim Jong-un took over for his father, there have been dwindling numbers, “decreasing 21%” in one year (between 2016–2017) (Skretteberg NRC news). He has enforced security all around the border and punishments for trying to escape have become harsher. This meant that there were only 1,127 new North Korean refugees in 2017. The Bowibu (secret police) force has increased, common everyday people getting paid to spy on neighbors and even family. Referencing Sarah Kim, “Throughout the North, there are lots of camps to maintain control and a sense of fear over the people”, enforcing the Kim reign (Sarah Kim LiNK). Crediting Lee, “Kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea. There is risk in helping others. The irony was that by forcing us to be good citizens, the state made accusers and informers of us all.” (Hyeonseo Lee). The age range of these people greatly determines who escapes. The majority are midway through adulthood, physically and mentally capable to make the journey with little help. For the 15% that is below or above that age range, it is considerably harder to make the journey.
This graph relates to my topic of North Korean Refugees by showing the average age of the defectors leaving North Korea. I find that it is concerning to see that the third most common age for people to travel at is elderly, implying that these people need quite a bit more help making the journey for they are most likley not able bodied or minded. Two facts I found are important from this graph are first of all, majority of North Korean Refugees made the journey while in adulthood. The other one was that the second most common age to travel is as an infant, most likley traveling with parents or guardians. Overall, this graph shows us that most commonly adults are the ones to go on the journey, which makes sense, being that they are legally independent and in better shape than one who is very young or elderly. I can tell they are in majority by looking at this pie chart, where 85% of it is made up of adult defectors.
Relating back to the gender of North Korean Refugees, this graph shows how many women vs. men defectors there are coming from North Korea. This is concerning to me because when researching this topic, I found that majority of these women are leaving due to sexual harassment, forced marriages or abortions, and the lack of food they have for their children as a single mom in North Korea. Once you become single your songbun (social ranking) drops and you are looked down on, meaning being placed on communal farms, lack of food and harsh treatment. Two facts I found in this graph was that majority of these defectors are women, and the highest rate of escapees from North Korea was between 2006–2011. When observing the y-axis, I noticed the abrupt peak between 2006–2011, and how, looking at the darker blue, the precentage of women escaping are much higher than the presentage of men escaping.
Caste or ranking systems run all throughout the world, but none quite as strict as the songbun system in North Korea. Citing Lee, “Songbun is a caste system that operates in North Korea. A family is classified as loyal, wavering, or hostile, depending on what the father’s family was doing just before, during, and after the founding of the state in 1948.” (pg. 6 Hyeonseo Lee) It is exceedingly hard to rise in rank, but immensely easy to fall. You could fall in ranking due to marrying someone of a lower rank, having a bad family history (within 3 generations back), saying something bad about the Great and/or Dear Leader(s), trading across borders and much more. As Hyeonseo Lee said, “In North Korea the only laws that truly matter, and for which extreme penalties are imposed if they are broken, touch on loyalty to the Kim dynasty.” (Hyeonseo Lee). You’re ranking also determines your place of work and respect. The lowest class works in the fields on communal farms, many dying early due to the harsh conditions and an even greater number due to lack of food. Higher up in the loyal class many can afford good food and occasional produce. The wealthier you are the more freedom you have. The bowibu don’t pay as much attention to you and you have the money to bribe. In North Korea, bribing is part of society and almost a show of status, because if you can pay off very high bribes (to do things such as get goods from across the border), you are clearly wealthy and should be respected. Respect is one of the main virtues of the North Korean people, first shown to the dear and great leader (s) then to your elders. Elders are to always be respected, and it is a great sign of disrespect if you talk back to or are just generally rude to someone older than you.
The devastating famine of 1995 all the way to “violated the
human rights through imprisonment, torture, starvation, rape, public executions and isolation from the rest of the world” (Yang apa.org) has pretty much destroyed the morale and beliefs of the North Korean people. The idea soon struck that maybe they were being told lies. Maybe, just maybe, the government wasn’t telling the truth about North Korea being the greatest and most wealthy country in the world. Freedom and food became the motivation to get out of the country, quoting apa.org, “searching for it in neighboring countries, despite the dangerous journeys” (Yang apa.org).
The North Korean people face an exceeding number of challenges when trying to defect. The first and main challenge is money. In North Korea, certain people are considered wealthy, but in the outside world, their wealth is considered on the brink of poverty. Mainly the people trying to escape are in the hostile or wavering categories meaning they do not have the minimum of $3,000 to make the journey. This amount covers food, shelter, help along the way and, most importantly, bribes. To escape, bribing is essential, mainly when it comes to crossing the border. Just to organize with family within the country is dangerous. Some of the biggest challenges when living in North Korea is watching what you say and do. The bowibu (some of which can be paid, regular citizens) can record telephone calls, hear what you are saying no matter where you are, threaten you, and finally, sentence you to spend much of your life in labor, prison, or public execution. A true example of this described by Lee is when a man had rolled up a piece of newspaper to smoke because cigarettes are expensive, not realizing that the Great Leader’s face was on the backside of the paper. A member of the bowibu caught him and his entire family (out to 3rd cousins and great grandparents) was sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in the one labor camp where nobody comes back (Hyeonseo Lee). The only way out of one of these scenarios is bribing. If you do not have the money you suffer the punishments.
The longer the Kim dictatorship goes on, the more and more he feels his power is being threatened. As Sarah Kim said, “Security is tightening on both sides of the border” (Sarah Kim LiNK). The longer the Kim dictatorship goes on, the more and more he feels his power is being threatened. Some North Koreans are lucky enough to live directly on a border, making the trip quite a bit easier. Throughout the decades though, the border in between the Koreas have been tight, only getting tighter as time goes on. Many people go through China to reach the South, but that is a very dangerous journey, for if you are caught in China you are sent back to severe punishments in North Korea.
If you can pay the bribes, escaping the country isn’t the hardest part, it’s getting out of China where it gets dangerous. Referencing Skretteberg from NRC news, “Using false identification papers provided by a network of Koreans with Chinese citizenship is common. Many, however, have taken a long journey through China to Mongolia, or countries in south-east Asia” (Skretteberg NRC news). North Koreans are illegal in China and over the course of the 3,000+ mile journey many become “victims of human trafficking” (Skretteberg NRC news) along the way. If you are caught by everyday citizens you are either turned in (most common for men) or more commonly sold into marriages and sex slavery (most common for women). Referring to Sarah Kim, “The Chinese government arrests North Korean refugees and sends them back to the regime” if they are sent back, “they will face extremely harsh punishments, including brutal beatings, forced labor, forced abortions, torture, and even internment in a political prison camp.” (Sarah Kim LiNK). Many have had the same experience that Hyeonseo Lee had when helping family members escape; “I spent the next seven days going back and forth from the police station to the immigration office, establishing relations with the officers, working on them to build a rapport. I knew I would have to bribe.” (pg. 254 Hyeonseo Lee).
The next main challenges when escaping are actually some of the supposed solutions. The first option is brokers who are dishonest and are only motivated by money, many of which (there are a few who will actually help you), will rip you off or kidnap you, many times sexually harassing women. Another one is to get family and friends to help, which though is a generally safe route, if anyone gets caught, you are all punished. The final one is doing it on your own which is hard but safer and there is less of a chance of getting caught. Once you reach South Korea you are safe after you “go through a lengthy interrogation” (Skretteberg NRC news).
And when these refugees finally achieve the escape, the one thing they risked everything for, they are faced with some of the biggest challenges. Lee says, “I wanted to belong, like everyone else around me did, but there was no country I could say was mine. I had no one to tell me that many other people in the world have a fragmented identity; that it doesn’t matter. That who we are as a person is what’s important.” (Hyeonseo Lee). Adjusting to everything for “the South Korean version of the war to practical skills” (Skretteberg NRC news) is very hard for most of the refugees, as it is with refugees from around the world. This comes with the culture, lifestyle, language, and most importantly, politics. It is particularly hard for them compared to other refugees because they find that they have been lied to and betrayed every step of the way in The North, which even though the government is corrupt, it is still their place of birth and childhood.
When coming into a new country, the North Korean people experience mistreatment and condescending stereotypes, resulting in mental illnesses. Mental illness isn’t commonly talked about in North Korea and due to their “lack of knowledge and understanding of mental health illness and perceived stigmas against it”, it makes it really hard to know to look for help (Yang apa.org). Many have PTSD from assault and their pasts in North Korea. A great percentage of defectors don’t get out on their first try and when they are sent back they are tortured, pried for information, and sometimes killed. Quoting Lee, “To know that your rights are being abused, or that you are abusing someone else’s, you first have to know that you have them, and what they are.” (Hyeonseo Lee). These stereotypes cause reluctance to admit that they are North Korean, and they feel ashamed of their history even though it does not reflect who they are personally. Many actually wish to go back once it is safe.
You might be wondering, what is being done to help? Well, helping is a lot harder when it comes to North Korean defectors but can be done! LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) is an organization started by college students who wanted to learn more about North Korea once it rose to the world’s attention in 1994. The organization was started in 2004 but did not start directly helping the escapees until 2010. North Korea was getting more well-known due to famine, deaths, and human rights violation they wanted to raise awareness at first, then realizing that they needed to do more than just that, soon thereafter helping them escape. How LiNK works is these refugees have to cross into China alone before they can help. They contact specific refugees mainly through friends and family who have been helped by LiNK in the past or know of a person that needs help. They help people of all ages and genders, “their first refugees being a couple over the age of seventy, and they have even worked with a few kids under the age of 10” (Sarah Kim LiNK), mainly kids whose mothers have been sold into marriage and they are trying to escape and find help. Majority of the people they come in contact with are 30–50 years old.
South Korea is also helping in a major way. They are welcoming to all North Koreans and their goal is to show the refugees human rights and freedom. Referencing northkoreanrefugee.org, “The [South] Korean government recognizes North Korean refugees as dislocated people who are also victims of national division.” (northkoreanrefugee.org). Along the journey, North Korean refugees are accommodated in government agencies or shelters. When coming through this organization, they have to go through “an education center for social adaption” which lasts 12 weeks. In this program, they work on, “psychological well-being, a better understanding of South Korean society, basic vocational training, employment process and jobs, educational support, self-defense and personal protection, and social security support. They also try to find family members of these refugees and even temporarily house them with family if possible.
Looking at a “local” level how many refugees there are in America is represented in this graph. Two facts I learned were that there are a total of 186 North Korean Refugees in America and that North Carolina only houses two. This graph really shows how America houses so few North Korean refugees, considering that most of them are living in South Korea, this graph makes me wonder, how can America become a more welcoming place for these defectors? When I take a look at the top bar on the y axis (Kentucky) I notice that they have the highest precentage of North Korean refugees living there.
Though only a small select group in these organizations can actually help these defectors escape, rescue teams are a great way to get started for teens and adults! As students, we can start a Rescue Team which is where a group of students, or a community, helps raise funds and spread the word about these refugees through LiNK. 100% of profits go to helping a refugee escape North Korea, and per person, a trip takes about $3,000. Secret specific routes are used that only seven or eight people in this organization to actually get the refugees out, but here is an
approximant look at the route.
There are also even simpler ways to help out. Creating friendships between North Koreans and the outside world is one way to start. This demolishes stereotypes and makes these refugees more comfortable in their own skin. The terms ‘us and them’ also need to stop being used in a sense that when a North Korean goes by you do not say, “oh that’s one of them”. This establishes a barrier between you both and makes them feel looked down upon. Mental Health experts need to be more available to the North Korean refugees, and check-ins should be mandatory. Many if not all of these people suffer trauma, abuse, loss of loved ones by force, and much more (Yang apa.org).
All of the challenges these refugees face along the way are almost unimaginable. Now, here is a way that we as students and middle schoolers can help the North Korean people. The first step is to educate about the North Korean people, their daily lives, and the unexpected struggles they go through to escape from under the Kim reign. Understanding what they have gone through and how to help is a nessasary step. The next thing to do is to start a rescue team through LiNK to fundraise. Once people in our community are better educated of these barriers many face and about the North Koreans in general, they will be eager to help and contribute. The fundraiser that our community could engage in virtually or in person could be a design/drawing challenge and what is made could be kept and just entered into the competition. What would be encouraged would be to sell the artwork at a craft fair, 100% of profits going to LiNK. There would be three winners, each winning a different donated prize supposedly from the Charger corner or locally owned stores. Through these ways we can make a major dent in the way society sees North Korean defectors. Even though helping inperson is hard and a very selective process, we can still help educate people about these refugees and how they can help. This plan is inclusive, and all can do it, even from home. Understanding that these refugees are regular people coming with hopes of freedom and a chance to be themselves can change minds about them. If enough people in the Triangle area develop empathy for these refugees then maybe in a long-term solution, more people could help fundraise and even join LiNK to help these refugees out of North Korea. And though this would take even more backup and understanding from people in and outside our community, we could change the governments perspective in the U.S., perhaps making America a more welcoming place for these people. For this to happen, education is more and more needed. The more awareness that is spread for this neglected group of refugees there is more of a chance for change.
Works Cited
Sarah Kim from https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/refugee-rescues (Interview and website usage)
https://www.nrc.no/news/2018/february/ten-things-you-should-know-about-refugees-from-north-korea/
https://northkoreanrefugee.org/eng/info_on_nkrefugee/data_stastics.jsp
Hyeonseo Lee https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Seven-Names-Korean-Defectors-ebook/dp/B00JD3ZL9U
