Huge gap between Koreas
2010-08-29 02:17 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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omonatheydidRight now, some 20,000 North Korean refugees are residing in South Korea. This is not a big group if one compares them with 670,000 defectors who fled from East Germany in 1961-1989. However, merely a decade ago, in 2000, the number of defectors barely exceeded 1,000.
Few people doubt that the fate of refugees can help us to predict what will happen to Korea after its unification.
Unfortunately, the recent news and statistics do not bode well for the future of a unified Korean state.
Indeed, the recent reports confirm that refugees are by no means successful economically. In January 2010, a study, commissioned by a South Korean government agency, found that the unemployment rate among the defectors reached 14 percent.
In a country where the average unemployment rate — at least by an official tally — is merely 2 percent, it is a staggering figure.
Their income is not too high, either.
In January 2010 an employed refugee made about 1.3 million won a month (barely more than $1,000) — roughly 50 percent of the nationwide average.
Partially, it is a result of objective reasons. Gone are the days when most refugees came from the privileged groups of North Korean society.
Until the early 1990s most defectors from the North were diplomats, air force pilots or soldiers from the commando units — they were the only people who could defect in those days. Those early defectors were few in number, brought valuable intelligence and boosted the prestige of Seoul, which was engaged in an intense competition with the rival communist regime in Pyongyang. Therefore, the South Korean state could afford to shower them with money.
Things changed dramatically in the mid-1990s when North Koreans began to move across the long border with China. Nowadays nearly all the refugees living in the South come from this community of illegal North Korean migrants to China. And those people are a far cry from the elite defectors of the pre-1995 period.
Most of the post-1995 refugees are either poor farmers or workers in the least developed parts of North Korea.
They lack many skills which are essential in modern society, so in most cases they are stuck with low-skilled, low-paid work.
At the same time, the government cannot afford to treat the new arrivals with the same generosity. First, there are too many of them — some 2,000- 3,000 North Koreans arrive in the South every year (in the 1980s, the average number of defectors was fivesix per year). Second, most of those people do not possess any valuable intelligence, and their propaganda value is negligible, too — the competition between the two Korean states has long been won by the South.
The refugees are still eligible for some preferential treatment, but these privileges are quite moderate.
Upon arrival and after a short debriefing by the National Intelligence Service, refugees are sent to Hanawon, an educational facility where they spend two to three months, learning the basics of life in South Korean society. Most of the subject matter is very practical — they learn how to ride the Seoul subway or how to purchase food in a South Korean supermarket.
Then a refugee is provided with a subsidized flat and is allotted “arrival money” — a subsidy paid in installments to assist with establishing a household (the size of the subsidy depends on personal circumstances, but it is usually about $15,000). After that, the refugee is on his or her own.
The first few years are usually very difficult, so many of my refugee friends even complain that they even thought about going back to the North (a small number of refugees have actually done this). They very soon discover that the life around them is very strange and alien, and that their skills are not sufficient to earn an income which would make them financially equal to the average South Korean.
The South Koreans, as they soon discover, are at best indifferent to their plight — and in some cases might even be hostile to them. In spite of the oft-repeated unification rhetoric, South Koreans tend to perceive the refugees with certain suspicion and sometimes discriminate against them.
Sometimes, the alienation leads to really bizarre situations. Nam Su, a mid-level manager from North Korea, defected to the South in 1996. In 2000 he went to China and surrendered himself to the North Korean embassy, becoming the first ever refugee to return to the North.
The North Korean authorities used him as a propaganda boon, so he was not merely pardoned, but put on countless lecture circuits, telling his fellow countrymen about the horrors of the capitalist South and brutality of its American imperialist masters. However, in 2003 he defected again, having obviously decided that on balance South Korea is a lesser evil for a person like him. Now he runs a greenhouse somewhere in the countryside.
This is a sad story. The refugees can be seen as the most active and flexible part of the North Korean population.
Nonetheless, few of them succeed in the South. It does not bode well for the future of a unified Korea.
It seems that it will take a generation or two before the huge economic and social gap between the two Korean societies will be bridged.
Source: koreatimes
Few people doubt that the fate of refugees can help us to predict what will happen to Korea after its unification.
Unfortunately, the recent news and statistics do not bode well for the future of a unified Korean state.
Indeed, the recent reports confirm that refugees are by no means successful economically. In January 2010, a study, commissioned by a South Korean government agency, found that the unemployment rate among the defectors reached 14 percent.
In a country where the average unemployment rate — at least by an official tally — is merely 2 percent, it is a staggering figure.
Their income is not too high, either.
In January 2010 an employed refugee made about 1.3 million won a month (barely more than $1,000) — roughly 50 percent of the nationwide average.
Partially, it is a result of objective reasons. Gone are the days when most refugees came from the privileged groups of North Korean society.
Until the early 1990s most defectors from the North were diplomats, air force pilots or soldiers from the commando units — they were the only people who could defect in those days. Those early defectors were few in number, brought valuable intelligence and boosted the prestige of Seoul, which was engaged in an intense competition with the rival communist regime in Pyongyang. Therefore, the South Korean state could afford to shower them with money.
Things changed dramatically in the mid-1990s when North Koreans began to move across the long border with China. Nowadays nearly all the refugees living in the South come from this community of illegal North Korean migrants to China. And those people are a far cry from the elite defectors of the pre-1995 period.
Most of the post-1995 refugees are either poor farmers or workers in the least developed parts of North Korea.
They lack many skills which are essential in modern society, so in most cases they are stuck with low-skilled, low-paid work.
At the same time, the government cannot afford to treat the new arrivals with the same generosity. First, there are too many of them — some 2,000- 3,000 North Koreans arrive in the South every year (in the 1980s, the average number of defectors was fivesix per year). Second, most of those people do not possess any valuable intelligence, and their propaganda value is negligible, too — the competition between the two Korean states has long been won by the South.
The refugees are still eligible for some preferential treatment, but these privileges are quite moderate.
Upon arrival and after a short debriefing by the National Intelligence Service, refugees are sent to Hanawon, an educational facility where they spend two to three months, learning the basics of life in South Korean society. Most of the subject matter is very practical — they learn how to ride the Seoul subway or how to purchase food in a South Korean supermarket.
Then a refugee is provided with a subsidized flat and is allotted “arrival money” — a subsidy paid in installments to assist with establishing a household (the size of the subsidy depends on personal circumstances, but it is usually about $15,000). After that, the refugee is on his or her own.
The first few years are usually very difficult, so many of my refugee friends even complain that they even thought about going back to the North (a small number of refugees have actually done this). They very soon discover that the life around them is very strange and alien, and that their skills are not sufficient to earn an income which would make them financially equal to the average South Korean.
The South Koreans, as they soon discover, are at best indifferent to their plight — and in some cases might even be hostile to them. In spite of the oft-repeated unification rhetoric, South Koreans tend to perceive the refugees with certain suspicion and sometimes discriminate against them.
Sometimes, the alienation leads to really bizarre situations. Nam Su, a mid-level manager from North Korea, defected to the South in 1996. In 2000 he went to China and surrendered himself to the North Korean embassy, becoming the first ever refugee to return to the North.
The North Korean authorities used him as a propaganda boon, so he was not merely pardoned, but put on countless lecture circuits, telling his fellow countrymen about the horrors of the capitalist South and brutality of its American imperialist masters. However, in 2003 he defected again, having obviously decided that on balance South Korea is a lesser evil for a person like him. Now he runs a greenhouse somewhere in the countryside.
This is a sad story. The refugees can be seen as the most active and flexible part of the North Korean population.
Nonetheless, few of them succeed in the South. It does not bode well for the future of a unified Korea.
It seems that it will take a generation or two before the huge economic and social gap between the two Korean societies will be bridged.
Source: koreatimes
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:36 pm (UTC)I hope this is coherent enough...
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:44 pm (UTC)Sometimes life in foreign country can get plain hard when it's something that you're not used to. And add on societal pressures to be "like the rest" and countless discrimination, it's enough to be taxing on anyone, not just prisoners or refugees.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:16 pm (UTC)I like your analogy better (:
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:37 pm (UTC)south korea is always talking about unification, and there's a bond with the people of the north, but i'm sure that when you're actually faced with a situation as an employer, your thoughts are going to be different.
the article seems to expect unification will come. and soon.
this is such a crazy issue, i have no idea how it's going to pan out. i mean hello, north korea getting twitter facebook and whatever else creeps me out. and there was that video released of that boy and girl playing some crazy kickass drum solos in north korea awhile ago (except instead of raging hair and attitude she was dressed in a pretty white dress and him in a tux and the former when finishing had this graceful ballet-ish movement accompanying her steady breathing and i was like oh north korea of course you would do this) and i was like O_O''.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:52 pm (UTC)Honestly, everyone should leave North Korea alone and just let them go through their own battles. Interference from the outside just leaves countries down to endless cultural and ideological battles and creates needless internal strife.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:04 pm (UTC)Read this book and then decide if you feel the same way:
If your next-door neighbour had starving kids locked in the basement, would it be a good idea to just leave the situation alone?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 04:15 pm (UTC)o_O
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 09:14 pm (UTC)your preaching apathy, apathy helps no one. apathy isn't helping this situation either. if south korean youths would put half as much energy towards helping deflected north korean children that they put towards their idols things would be different.
scientifically MOST people don't learn to make the best from hardship. they learn, learned helplessness. the belief that nothing they do will change their circumstances. they just accept their fate no matter how horrible. thats the case for prisoners and victims of abuse. thats the case for nk citizens who have been beaten down their entire lives. im wouldn't sit there and judge these people and tell them to get their shit together and help themselves.
nk people aren't fighting a war, their fighting a genocide. prison camps are set up all over nk. generations are kept there for stupid crimes committed by other family members.
your also contradicting yourself. unless your saying that sk should stop caring AND stop pretending like they care. i don't see how you can criticize a nation and then turn around and tell them to do NOTHING. how does that help? theres a psychological reason to why the citizens of nk haven't revolted yet. i may not know the answers to fully solve this issue but i sincerely doubt being apathetic to the whole problem will help.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:29 pm (UTC)oh world war ii
i do agree that north korea needs less attention (oh look we're really going to explode some nuclear bomb one day I WANT ATTENTION *WAVES HANDS AT HILARY CLINTON*) from the outside world, but no attention isn't helping anyone. at least some are able to defect, some are able to get out, some christians are able to escape without being uselessly martyred every second. and i mean, is it very human to know there are some crazy things happening in that country, most of the things you and i won't ever know about, and just leave it be? sure a lot of the time the people higher up are just going to release their anger on their people, but things might slowly be able to change. look at them in the fifa world cup - no matter what, no matter how stupidly kim jong il spent the money the soccer team won, no matter whether the team actually had to deal with long winded speeches and embarrassment at how crap they'd done, there's something positive to be gained from those things. sure it's going to come as a shock to most people, and they're brainwashed into thinking north korea is the best thing that's ever existed, but who knows what could happen with globalisation creeping in?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:50 pm (UTC)Ah, I don't know... Of course, a lot would have to happen before unification would ever come to pass, so maybe the Koreas would be more similar by then as well. Unless it would happen after some kind of disaster hitting the North leaving it totally to the dust, at which point I'm not even sure the South would take it on. I'm not sure they would take them as they are right now despite the talk.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:34 pm (UTC)if we even take one step in the wrong direction, north korea's so fragile that it'd probably ruin the people
you can't just barge in there and be like KIM JONG IL WAS CRAP THANKS. some of the people at my school think it's that easy and i just want to hit them over the head.
it'll take generations for the north koreans to adapt to this new way of thinking, get rid of their old prejudices and have a deeper understanding of the world - and vice versa too.
maybe it's ridiculously naive of me, but i want to hope that it'll happen.
most probably it's going to be south korea (and uh america etc) will fight, lots of people will be lost, and they'll gain a bit of land and people. the rest of them will integrate themselves into china. >_>
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 09:51 pm (UTC)It may be my brain being all faulty today but IDG this comment.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:21 pm (UTC)This really makes me think that the whole unification talk is just political and that society at large doesn't want it.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 03:46 am (UTC)maybe
but most of the people i know in korea desperately want unification - and by that i mean, they know it's not right to charge into north korea and just try to change everything (nobody knows better than the people who went through it) but they still feel a bond with the people in the north and think of them to have the same blood, the same culture, the same background and thus have a moral need to help them out. e.g. even with the sinking of the ships, nobody really blamed the north koreans, it was just the despotic government they have over there. or at the world cup, heaps of south koreans went over to cheer for the northern team and prayed that they would do well.
my grandparents on both sides were defectors from the north, and maybe kids my age don't care as much but anybody older than that still remembers what happened because of the korea war, and are still feeling the effects of it. maybe these feelings aren't being shown when employing people or what, but i think the south korean government has a need to take care of the refugees better.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 10:41 am (UTC)i dont think sk government will be prepared to handle the massive influx of problems that nk brings. or visa versa