A listening ear for North Korean defectors

North Korean defectors, like many others living in South Korea, suffer from ailments, but, unlike most, they have difficulty conveying them to doctors.

Tucked inside the National Medical Center in Seoul, the North Korean Defector Medical Counseling Center has been host to over 4,000 patients since its opening in 2007. Run by The Organization for One Korea, a civic group in favor of unification, the center helps refugees communicate with hospital staff and understand the medical culture here.

The center also gives them a place free from judgment and prejudice. “There are a lot of people who come for consultations and while they are waiting they usually talk about their hometown and things they have been through without hesitation, developing a bond like relatives,” said Im Hyang, 38.

Im, a defector herself, said it doesn’t matter if they do not know one another because, for those 10 minutes of waiting, they are family. “It almost acts as a community center because people come in here and pour out their feelings that they could not do otherwise, which helps people here become more familiar with each other,” she said.

Many defectors are struck by depression and loneliness which become root problems for other ailments. According to Im, they defect into the South alone and have no one to lean on in tough times, often exacerbating illnesses and leading to excessive drinking.

North Korean refugees come from as far as Jeju Island and Busan to seek medical counseling in Seoul, simply for this companionship.

North Korea new tactic of using families to weaken resolve of defectors

Australian news reports a remarkable first for North Korea, the secretive communist state has posted online interviews with the families of four of its citizens who want to defect to the South. The four are part of a large group of North Koreans who accidentally drifted over the Yellow Sea maritime border on a boat last month.

North Korea has hit back, posting interviews with family members where they plead for their loved ones to return, warning that they will face brainwashing if they stay in South Korea.

As one distraught mother spoke to the camera, the teenage girl sat quietly holding her hand, but as soon as her mother finished the girl made an urgent appeal. "Father I miss you. Please come back now," she cried. The girl's father is Hong Yong-hak, a 44-year-old North Korean who is among the would-be defectors.

"They make the ridiculous claim that my daughter's defecting," said another woman, who says she is the mother of 22-year old Pak Myong-ok.

The mother of 21-year-old nurse Bong Un-ha says it is all a conspiracy. "How would Un-ha ever fall to brainwashing by the enemy?" she said.

Of the 31, 27 North Koreans who want to come home were taken to the heavily fortified border by South Korean authorities last week. But officials from the North refused to take them back until the other four were returned as well.

Seoul says the two men and two women have chosen to stay of their own free will, but Pyongyang is not backing down.

North Korean defector with determination

Han Jae-suk, a 31-year-old North Korean defector, has endured an odyssey in her effort to resettle in South Korea. The journey has included living for a year and a half in the basement of the South Korean Consulate in Shenyang, China, and studying 12 hours a day in Seoul as part of her training for a new career. 

Han in many ways represents the North Korean defector with resolve, courage and determination. Han is a video editor with a small enterprise, who returns home after 11 p.m each night. She isn’t working late hours, but she has been taking lessons in recent months to get a driver’s license.

It will be one of a handful of certifications Han has earned since arriving in Seoul in November 2008. She has obtained licenses certifying proficiency in Microsoft Office and other computer skills, and she has learned accounting, graphic design and visual media.

“I just did my best to learn as many fields as possible, because those licenses are only a small portion of rudimentary skills that South Koreans have and I need to keep up with them to survive,” said Han.

After being discharged from Hanawon -- the state-run, mandatory resettlement center for North Korean defectors -- Han started waiting tables at a restaurant. In less than a month, she realized the job was far from what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She registered with a hagwon, a private academy, to learn graphic design because drawing had been one of her longtime hobbies. And when the 12-hour graphic design classes were finished, she headed to an accounting academy because defector friends advised her that learning the field would facilitate her job search. After six months, Han was employed as a bookkeeper at a small firm, and she worked there for three months. She then enrolled in an acedmy for a year to learn visual media. Her visual media lessons led Han to her current job editing video - an occupation she is enthusiastic about.

The single woman said leaving North Korea was one of the best choices she has made in her life. “Whatever the circumstance, I can at least enjoy basic things enjoyed by others if I try hard,” she said with a shy grin. “Up there [in North Korea], it is very hard, however hard I tried. I have kept it a rule here to work during daytime and learn at night,” she said.

[JoongAng]