Analysis of Time Life in North Korean with the perspectives of Defectors

탈북인을 통해 본 북한의 시간생활 실태 및 남한과의 차이점 분석

The Purpose of this study is to scrutinize the time structure and time use pattern of North Korean and to identify the differences of time use patterns between South and North Korean Societies. To carry out this Purpose in-depth interviews with ten people who escaped from North Korea after 1990 and empirical survey with 158 subjects were conducted. The findings are as follows. The characteristics of time life of North Korean are uniform time use pattern in tightly scheduled daily life and shortage of disposable time and constraint of free time due to job related labor, extra job activities including learning, meeting and evaluation, and labor mobilization. Women are faced with heavy burden of doing job and housework in the continuing patriarchal way of thinking and in the circumstances of poor housing environment. In North, Leisure time is constraint and leisure facilities are poor and the concept of leisure is totally different as that of South. North Korean think leisure as connecting with work and education and as public sphere, not private sphere. I this context leisure is considered as means for the strengthening of the communist society. Differences in the perception of time life through defectors are as follows. In South, there are plenty of leisure time and man can control his own time. Man spend his free time for various activities, especially for cultural activities such as sports, recreation, eating out with families and spend time till late in the outdoors. This study revealed differences in many aspects of time life between South and North Korean societies. These results will provide useful informations for the overcome of differences of cultural life of South and North Korean societies and accomplishment of the real integration of two societies.