Twenty Years' Evolution of North Korean Migration, 1994-2014: a Human Security Perspective
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Singapore Management University Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Research Collection School of Social Sciences School of Social Sciences 5-2015 Twenty years' evolution of North Korean migration, 1994-2014: A human security perspective Jiyoung SONG Singapore Management University, [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.82 Follow this and additional works at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Citation SONG, Jiyoung.(2015). Twenty years' evolution of North Korean migration, 1994-2014: A human security perspective. Asia and the Pacific oP licy Studies, 2(2), 399-415. Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1770 This Journal Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Social Sciences at Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Research Collection School of Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University. For more information, please email [email protected]. bs_bs_banner Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 399–415 doi: 10.1002/app5.82 Original Article Twenty Years’ Evolution of North Korean Migration, 1994–2014: A Human Security Perspective Jiyoung Song* Abstract 1. Introduction Over the past two decades, there have been Over the past two decades, there have been notable changes in North Korean migration: notable changes in North Korean migration: from forced migration to trafficking in women, from forced migration in search of freedom to from heroic underground railways to people economic or environmental refugees, caused by smuggling by Christian missionaries. The famine and natural disasters, from trafficking in migration has taken mixed forms of asylum women to undocumented sex work in Karaoke seeking, human trafficking, undocumented bars, or from heroic underground railways to labour migration and people smuggling. The people smuggling by Christian missionaries. paper follows the footsteps of North Korean When the author first began her research on migrants from China through Southeast Asia to North Korean asylum seekers in China in 1999, South Korea, and from there to the United many North Koreans fell squarely under the Kingdom, to see the dynamic correlation category of victims of the politically repressive between human (in)security and irregular regime of the Democratic People’s Republic of migration. It analyses how individual Korea (DPRK), its human rights violations, migrant’s agency interacts with other key closed economy, the series of natural disasters, actors in the migration system and eventually and subsequent famine and malnutrition. The brings about emerging patterns of four distinc- motivations of their defection were mixed: tive forms of irregular migration in a macro political, social, economic and environmental. level. It uses human security as its conceptual Fifteen years later, the author’s team inter- framework that is a people-centred, rather than viewed dozens of North Koreans who were state- or national security-centric approach to living in the United Kingdom, as British citi- irregular migration. zens or permanent residents who are no longer categorised as victims but rather autonomous Key words: North Korea, migration, human agents of their own who navigate the best places trafficking, people smuggling, human security to live not just for their own survival but also for reproduction. The article first outlines the journey of North Korean migrants from China to investi- gate the initial forms and motivations of North Korean irregular migration and to identify the main human security concerns in these pecu- * School of Social Sciences, Singapore Manage- liar forms of mixed migration. Second, in ment University, Singapore, 178903, Singapore. Southeast Asia, it focuses on the consequences Corresponding author: Jiyoung Song, email and human cost of diverse geopolitical envi- Ͻ[email protected]Ͼ. ronments to which North Korean migrants are © 2015 The Author. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies published by Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. 400 Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies May 2015 exposed and adapt to, guided by brokers and national Covenant on Economic, Social and missionaries. Affected people’s (Kempadoo Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Articles 2–3, 10, et al. 2005) vulnerability and potential human 13–4; Convention on the Elimination of All rights violations are the subject of inquiry. Forms of Discrimination Against Women Third, in South Korea, North Koreans’ legal (CEDAW); Convention of the Rights of the and social identities and why their dual nation- Child (CRC); Convention against Torture ality drives secondary migration to the Western and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading world will be analysed. Finally, the article Treatment or Punishment (CAT); and other introduces some of the challenges North International Labour Organisation (ILO) Korean asylum seekers and refugees face in conventions on forced labour or child labour) the United Kingdom based on a series of inter- • Community Security: the right to cultural life; views conducted in 2012–2014. to preserve cultural practices, values or heri- The conceptual framework of this article is tage from sectarian violence or not to be human security, a people-centred, rather than discriminated against on the basis of race, state- or national security-centric, perspective ethnicity, nationality or religion (UDHR that helps us understand the non-linearity of Article 27; ICCPR Article 27; ICESCR migration patterns. Before the article moves Article 15; International Convention on the into the empirical analysis, the human security Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimi- framework will be explained below. nation (CERD); and International Conven- tion on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their 2. Human Security: Securitisation of Families (MWC)) Human Rights • Political Security: the rights to freedom of assembly, political participation; not to be Human security, a concept endorsed by the discriminated against based on political United Nations Development Programme opinion; to vote, to stand for election, to have (UNDP) and theorised upon by a few scholars free and fair elections, to freedom of international relations, has slowly gained of speech, to form and maintain political currency in public discourse but is still not organisations, or to organise social move- widely accepted in the academic circle. ments (UDHR Articles 2, 20–21; ICCPR Mahbub ul Haq, Pakistani economist and Articles 21–22, 25) author of the Human Development Report, • Economic Security: the rights to basic categorised the seven pillars of human security income, to social security, work, rest, to par- in 1994, which, I argue, are all within the ticipate in trade unions (UDHR Article 22–4; realm of international human rights as follows: ICESCRArticles 6–9; and other ILO conven- • Personal Security: the right to life, liberty tions on minimum wage, etc.) and security; not to be discriminated against • Food Security: the rights to an adequate stan- on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, reli- dard of living, to freedom from hunger, to gion, sex, political opinion or social origin, access to basic food (ICESCR Articles 11) birth, disability, gender, sexual orientation; to • Heath Security: the rights to a decent stan- freedom from violence, torture, slavery, dard of living, to health, to protection from exploitation, arbitrary arrest, or summary infectious or chronic diseases and to access execution; to recognition before the law, health services (UDHR Article 25; ICESCR fair trial, privacy, family, property, identity/ Articles 12) nationality, movement and residence, gender • Environment Security: the rights to an equality, freedom of thought and education adequate standard of living, clothing, (Universal Declaration of Human Rights housing, a clean environment, especially (UDHR) Articles 1–19, 26; International water and air, and to be protected from man- Covenant on Civil and Political Rights made environmental disasters (ICESCR (ICCPR) Articles 2–3, 6–20, 23–4, 26; Inter- Articles 11) © 2015 The Author. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies published by Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd Song: North Korean Migration, 1994–2014 401 The UN Commission on Human Security, realities of human insecurities, many irregular established in 2001, has been renamed to the migrants self-organise to survive. Complex Human Security Unit under the Office of the networks of key actors, each with his/her own Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2004. interests, facilitate irregular migration. Its activities are meagre, not because of the lack For this study of North Korean irregular of utility in the concept of human security but migrants in four different locations and migra- because of the institutional overlaps