STRANGERS AT HOME: NORTH KOREANS IN THE SOUTH Asia Report N°208 – 14 July 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... i I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 II. CHANGING POLICIES TOWARDS DEFECTORS ................................................... 2 III. LESSONS FROM KOREAN HISTORY ........................................................................ 5 A. COLD WAR USES AND ABUSES .................................................................................................... 5 B. CHANGING GOVERNMENT ATTITUDES ......................................................................................... 8 C. A CHANGING NATION .................................................................................................................. 9 IV. THE PROBLEMS DEFECTORS FACE ...................................................................... 11 A. HEALTH ..................................................................................................................................... 11 1. Mental health ............................................................................................................................. 11 2. Physical health ........................................................................................................................... 12 B. LIVELIHOODS ............................................................................................................................. 14 1. Unemployment ........................................................................................................................... 14 2. Cultural barriers ......................................................................................................................... 16 3. Debts and money ........................................................................................................................ 16 C. DISCRIMINATION ....................................................................................................................... 17 1. Language .................................................................................................................................... 18 2. Visibility and prejudice .............................................................................................................. 19 D. WOMEN ..................................................................................................................................... 20 E. CHILDREN .................................................................................................................................. 21 V. HOW DEFECTORS JOIN A NEW SOCIETY ........................................................... 22 A. GOVERNMENT RESPONSES ......................................................................................................... 22 1. On arrival ................................................................................................................................... 22 2. Long-term support ..................................................................................................................... 23 3. The North Korean Refugees Foundation ................................................................................... 24 B. NON-GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSES ............................................................................................. 24 1. Local social welfare organisations ............................................................................................. 24 2. The Korean Red Cross ............................................................................................................... 25 3. NGOs ......................................................................................................................................... 25 4. Religious organisations .............................................................................................................. 25 5. Alternative schools ..................................................................................................................... 26 C. NEW GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PRIVATE RESPONSES ........................................................... 27 VI. NEW INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES .................................................................... 28 VII. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 30 APPENDICES A. MAP OF THE KOREA PENINSULA ...................................................................................................... 31 B. STATISTICAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................. 32 C. ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP .................................................................................... 35 D. CRISIS GROUP REPORTS AND BRIEFINGS ON ASIA SINCE 2008 ......................................................... 36 E. CRISIS GROUP BOARD OF TRUSTEES ................................................................................................ 38 Asia Report N°208 14 July 2011 STRANGERS AT HOME: NORTH KOREANS IN THE SOUTH EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As the number of defectors from North Korea arriving in works are essential for finding jobs. They also come from the South has surged in the past decade, there is a grow- a country where an all-powerful bureaucracy makes almost ing understanding of how difficult it would be to absorb a all decisions about their lives; there is almost no choice massive flow of refugees. South Korea is prosperous and in education, employment or even food. New arrivals de- generous, with a committed government and civil society, scribe a bewildering rush of modernity, consumption and and yet refugees from the North almost all fail to integrate choice that rapidly overwhelms them. They also complain or thrive. Part of this is the change in the people coming; of discrimination by Southerners, who have stereotyped it is no longer just senior officials and fighter pilots who them as heavy drinkers, prone to crime, shirking work and were useful and privileged propaganda tools. Nowadays relying on state handouts. many are women who have endured terrible deprivation in the North and abuse on their way to the South. Recon- Many arrive nowadays suffering from serious physical and figuring programs for defectors to take account of this mental health problems, resulting in part from poor diet and change is essential if new defectors are to find a place in trauma in the North and sometimes from abuse during their their new home. escape. South Korea is not well equipped to handle this: it has the highest suicide rate of wealthy countries and one The heart of the issue is humanitarian: those who arrive in of the poorest systems for providing mental health care. As the South are often fleeing material deprivation and politi- more vulnerable people have begun to arrive, not enough cal persecution and under South Korean law must be ac- has been done to accommodate their needs. cepted and helped. But as with all humanitarian issues, it is complicated by politics. Defectors have been used by The South Korean government has devoted significant re- both sides. The South once rewarded them with wealth sources to helping defectors, but its efforts have often lagged and public regard but that changed when rapprochement behind new developments. The lavish welcome defectors with the North began in the late 1990s. Defectors became received in the past has ended, and there is a more practi- something of an embarrassment, and policies to help them cal approach to education and integration, but as the arri- did not keep up with the numbers and types of people vals have soared, facilities have not kept up. Civil society, arriving. particularly religious groups, has stepped up to help, but relations with the government are often strained. Better As the difficulties of absorbing North Koreans become coordination of such efforts, improved oversight to deter- clear, the South is also wrestling with the possibility that mine what works and a more sensitive approach to discrimi- it one day might have to handle a vast outflow of refugees nation are all needed. from a collapsing North. The two sides of the Demilita- rised Zone have diverged so much in economics, politics, Critically, policy on defectors needs to be insulated both language and social organisation that the people are now from the occasional burst of belligerence from the North strangers to each other. South Korean law and opinion and from policy shifts in the South towards Pyongyang. from some quarters would likely demand a rapid unifica- What is clear is that the problems Northerners face on tion, but economic and social realities suggest such a move arrival take many years to resolve. What is needed is a long- could be catastrophic. The difficulties of handling just over term approach that allows a greater role for civil society 20,000 refugees over a few decades should be a warning and is less subject to change with each new government. to those who wish to encourage the collapse of the North rather than a more gentle integration. This report aims to draw attention to the challenges de- fectors have faced in integrating into the South, in the The divergences between North and South mean that de- hope that the many international actors