Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Documentary on NK Defectors

The Marmot, or a guest blogger, has a post about a documentary discussing the lives of North Korean defectors living in South Korea. The show is on KBS2 at 11pm tomorrow night (Wed the 13th). It will be in Korean but I will probably try to follow what's going on. What was interesting about the post was the quotes from defectors living in South Korea.

“Having risked their lives to escape their north, what are their dreams of South Korea?”
Eon Pil-suk (not her real name/defector) “Did we suffer like this to come to South Korea, only to be treated like this? Who can settle in with this kind of alienation and ostracism?”
” Defectors who have fallen into crime! Where does it all end?!”


This matches the early October report in the Joongang daily with the title '3 of 4 defectors here on welfare'. The article also mentions a surveys finding that 'just over two-thirds of North Korean defectors here said it was difficult to adjust to the competition inherent in South Korean society. '

I expect that all ex-pats in Korea follow this news with at least mild interest. My interest perked up with the daring entry in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing by 44 North Koreans. I've been keeping up with the news as best i can but have found no developments more than three days after the event. This is my first time following this kind of story so I wonder how it suddenly disappeared from the media.

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