Mass Exodus from North Korea

Mass Exodus from North Korea. July. 28, 2004 22:23. by Yoo-Seong Hwang yshwang@donga.com zsh75@donga.com.

The period for North Korean defectors to arrive in Seoul after escaping from the North has been rapidly shortened. Last month for the first time, defectors arrived in the South only eight days after escaping from the North. There are as many as six recent cases of them arriving in the South within a month. Mass defections of North Koreans and their speed have created a synergism to a rush of North Korean defectors.

However, the speed of settlement of these more than 5,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea remains at the level of “a local train” that stops frequently. It is partly due to the defectors themselves who have difficulty in adjusting, but there is a social atmosphere not to accept them as “members of our citizenry.”

“Super-Express” Line to South-

A 60-year-old woman, identified under the pseudonym Han Eun-hi, who used to live in Cheongjin in North Hamgyung Province, heard from her daughter last spring, saying, “I am in China. Please come visit me.” She was reluctant to leave her home. Her daughter said that she “made a lot of money,” and this helped her decide. So she secretly crossed the Dooman River, telling herself “this is just a short-term trip.”

Han learned after arriving in Yanji that her daughter lives in South Korea, not in China. In a phone conversation with her daughter, she scolded her saying that she is “crazy.” Han, however, changed her mind after hearing her daughter’s serious appeal to come to South Korea. A broker, who received 10 million won, passed a fake passport to disguise Han as a Chosun-jok (ethnic Koreans in China). Han transferred to Changchun to take a direct flight to Seoul and entered Incheon International Airport. It took only 23 days for her to arrive in South Korea after leaving Cheongjin.

Recently, not only have the routes that North Korean defectors take become diverse, but also the time it takes for defectors to escape the North via the middle section to the South has shortened. As routes with high success rates have been “developed,” the time spent in the middle section has gotten significantly shorter.

A North Korean defector, identified as “A,” who is now receiving training in Hanawon, a North Korean defectors’ settlement facility, is known to have spent only eight days in escaping the North and arriving in the South. This is the shortest among over 5,000 North Korean defectors and a surprise even to experts. His case is known to be under thorough examination to find out how such a “super-express escape” could have been possible.

An official said that when he looked at the process some North Korean defectors took lately, he felt as if he was looking at “knapsack international travelers.”

In official data, it has been shown that the speed of the “escape train from the North” has become faster. Among the defectors who arrived during the second half of the last year, 12.1 percent (61) stayed in China less than a year. The cases of less-than-a-year stays in China have jumped to 38 percent of the total 760 arrivals in the first half of this year.

Among the arrivals in this April, the ratio of defectors who spent less than six months after escaping the North was as high as 32 percent. The ratio remains high among May arrivals at 25 percent (20). Last month, there were six defectors who arrived in the “super-express” form, taking less than one month.

Slow Settlement-

A 30-year-old woman, identified as Chon, worked as a professional government officer after graduating from the Chemistry department at a well-known university in North Korea. When she came to the South last March, she tried to find a job in her field but failed. She is currently working as a server in a restaurant in Dongdaemoon, Seoul. She has developed depression symptoms.

A 38-year-old man, identified as Lee, who came in the South Korea in 1988, settled himself as a water purifier salesman. He, however, experienced a cold rejection from his “future father-in-law” who said that “I can not give my daughter to the person who cared only for himself (deserting his family) to come here.”

North Korean defectors who came here with their buoyant expectations are suffering from the social heterogeneity and the distance burdens placed on them, in addition to financial difficulties.

Chon Woo-taek, a psychology professor at the Medical School of Yonsei University, conducted a survey of the psychological status of 552 North Korean defectors. He said, “The defectors are originally confident of themselves and believe that they will be happy although they may not be well-off financially. However, as time passes, they start to doubt if they can ever succeed and are suffering from society’s ignoring and differentiating them.” He added, “The longer the defectors have stayed here, the more there are who anguish for their identity.”

The defectors, who have the primary responsibility for their settlement in the South, are also accountable for some problems.

According to a survey that the Korea Institute for National Unification did on 780 North Korean defectors last year, their employment rate was 39.8 percent and average monthly income was 740,000 won.

A defector, however, pointed out a fact, saying, “The survey result is different from the real situation. Many of the defectors said that they were staying unemployed in order to receive government support funds.”

In fact, there have been some defectors seen asking, “Why should we take 3-D [three kinds of dirty] jobs that South Koreans avoid?” A 40-year-old defector, identified as “K,” quit his delivery job at a wholesale store in the Youngdeungpo market last year, saying “Why do I have to receive only 800,000 won per month when I am doing the same work as other South Koreans?”

The Road to Unification-

The problem lies in the changing demography of the North Korean defectors.

Lee Won-woong, professor of North Korean Studies at Kwandong University, pointed out, “The demography of the North Korean defectors and their causes of defection have changed from the past. Their concept of defection has changed to ‘immigration.’ “

Defections due to disagreement with the political system or escape from North Korea to survive starvation are now in the past. The era when North Koreans make “mass immigrations” to the South in pursuit of a better life has arrived.

Therefore, the defectors are not satisfied with just meeting basic needs in life. They want more than that. Yoon Yo-sang, a professor at Kyongnam University, said, “There is a limit on government-side support to settle them successfully in this society. Our entire society should change into a system to accommodate the North Korean defectors. When the number of North Korean defectors exceeds 20,000, it is hard for the government to maintain its control over them.”

On Monday, right before 468 North Korean defectors entered the South, an official in an information organization presented such an analysis regarding this bursting arrival parade of North Korean defectors.

It is early to conclude that this massive arrival of North Korean defectors will stimulate more North Korean escapes. However, it appears that it will affect 100,000 North Korean defectors currently in China to “consider” going to the South via a third country more aggressively. Will the hypothesis this official made become realized in real life?

Disappearing North Korean Refugees-

Even three or four years ago, we could easily run into North Korean refugees who were asking for help in front of a Yanban church in Yanji city, a two-hour drive away from the border of North Korea. An alley near the market place was brimming with the refugees, dubbed “Kkot-je-bi (wandering kids),” begging for money and stealing goods.

However, now in 2004, they have disappeared completely. Sim, 36, a resident of a Chinese town near Musan in North Korea, said, “Even just a few years ago, the number of North Koreans who crossed the river and stayed for a while was about 20. But, nowadays, only smugglers are wandering around here; there are no more refugees.”

The Duman River, which the refugees mostly use as channel to cross the border, seems to be less used as of the end of 2002.

Some of the refugee-supporting civic groups argued that as of now, the number of North Korean escapees ranges from 200,000 to a maximum of 300,000. However, the UNHCR estimated the number to be in the 100,000s. Where have those many North Koreans gone?

Chinese authorities arrested some of them. In May, the USCR in the U.S. estimated that the number of North Korean refugees arrested by Chinese authorities to be about 7,800.

Cheong, who had lived in Cheongjin, Hambuk before entering South Korea, said, “In our village, which has from 30 to 50 houses, there were as many as three who were working in companies after being arrested by Chinese authorities.”

Where are they headed for now? The question is to where they are going thereafter. If only 10 percent of them choose to go South Korea, the number will reach from 10,000 to 20,000.

Most of them have already left the border area between the North and China and ventured elsewhere. Won, a resident of Yanji, 42, who has been caring for refugees for six years, said, “The majority of refugees have gone to the center of China and settled over there.”

Whether they choose to go to South Korea will determine the number of North Koreans who will gain future entrance to the South because there are few who have recently escaped the North.

Choi, 38, North Korean refugee, who entered the South in August of last year, said, “I was struggling to accustom myself to the life in China for five years. I got by and worked in Guangzhou, living together with the other five refugees who were in a similar situation with me.” Guangzhou is thousands of miles away from the border between China and the North.

Choi also said, “China is a very dangerous place where nobody knows when one will be arrested. Thus, we chose to go the South, even by paying money to a broker, with the hope of living a better life there.” Like Choi, most North Korean escapees, who do not have any connections in China, are considering going to South Korea.

Do Hee-yun, the senior member of the Alliance for North Korean Refugees’ Human Rights, said, “Once they settle in China, they don’t choose to go to the South via a third country even by risking their lives but, if cost, security, and information are made available, a slew of North Korean refugees would decide to go to the South.”

In particular, if the Chinese authorities consolidate their arrest and repatriation of refugees, their flux into the South will be accelerated. They also especially will do so when the increasing entrances to the South presents connections to those who do not have any connections in China.