• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.61-83
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• 2020

From 1959 to 1984, over 93,000 Koreans moved to North Korea from Japan as part of a repatriation project conducted during this time. Among them were people who had escaped from North Korea and immigrated to Japan and South Korea as well as the descendants of such people. This research examines the immigration trajectories of North Korean defectors related to the repatriation project and its effects on international relations in East Asia in a migration systems context. Specifically, it focuses on 26 North Korean defectors who have connections with Japan and settled in Japan and South Korea. It argues that the migration pathways of North Korean defectors linked with the repatriation project have been constructed with the cooperation of and amidst conflict between East Asian countries. To respond to the situation, North Korean defectors used their connections with Japan in amicable relations between Japan and China. However, after the relations went sour, defectors turned to informal transitional networks. If these strategies were unavailable, the defectors faced difficulties, unless they received social or capital support from the destination countries. After entering the destination country, those who settled in Japan have experienced different situations due to the inconsistency in administrative proceedings, while those in South Korea have been treated equally as other defectors. In this sense, some defectors have faced precarious situations in their immigration.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2021

Objective : This study examined the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among North Korean defectors during preparation for early settlement. In addition, the correlation between PTSD and other mental disorders with suicidal ideation was assessed. Methods : A total of 639 North Korean defectors aged 19-65 years were included from resettlement and training centers. PTSD was assessed using the PTSD Diagnostic Scale (PDS). The prevalence of other mental disorders and suicidal ideation were assessed using the Korean version of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (K-PDSQ). Results : A total of 6.8% of North Korean defectors had a PDS score >23, which was suggestive of a diagnosis of PTSD. Prior repatriation to North Korea was significantly associated with PTSD. The defectors with PTSD had a higher prevalence of other mental disorders (major depressive disorder prevalence: adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 14.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.7-31.2, panic disorder prevalence: AOR, 9.5; 95% CI, 4.6-20.0, generalized anxiety disorder prevalence: AOR, 5.6; 95% CI, 2.4-13.2). No significant association was found between suicidal ideation and PTSD. Conclusion : North Korean defectors had a relatively high prevalence of PTSD and suicidal ideation during preparation for early settlement. Cohort studies are needed to assess the lasting effects of PTSD on North Korean defectors' settlement in Korea for a longer period.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.1-17
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to understand North Korean female defectors' experiences in China. 13 female defectors were interviewed. Before they extricated from North Korea, they expected to make money to survive with their family in North Korea. But it couldn't be done because they didn't have legal status in China. They were at the risk of exposing to traffickers in females and of repatriation to North Korea. Surviving in China, they realized they were “Chosun(North Korean) females”; it meant they were in extremely poor and were sold by traffickers. It made them put to shame and be hurt their pride as a Chosun national identity. On the other hand, they realized they had narrow experiences and a limited outlook on international issues. They made themselves accustomed to freedom from the Chinese Revolution ; some of them experienced achievement. In general, they were satisfied with physical needs, but lacks of safety and worth in life. Even though, they couldn't return to North Korea because they were afraid of being punished by their government, and of striking their family a fatal blow in their successful lives of the society.

• Gut and Liver
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.615-622
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• 2018

Despite the well-proven, safe and effective therapies for hepatitis B infection, delivery of treatment remains a significant challenge in resource-poor settings. Geopolitical and economic restrictions present additional difficulties in providing care in North Korea. However, treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B remains a top priority for both the North Korean Ministry of Public Health and international agencies working in North Korean hepatitis healthcare facilities. Working in partnership, a path was created to institute this much-needed program. A consortium of United States and Australian humanitarian non-governmental organizations along with generous individual and corporate donors working in concert with local and national health authorities have succeeded in establishing the first hepatitis B treatment program in North Korea. The essential elements of this program include renovation of existing hepatitis hospitals, access to antiviral medications, establishment of laboratory facilities, creation of medical documentation and record-keeping, training of local health care professionals, and quarterly visits by international volunteer physicians and laboratory experts. Management and treatment decisions are made bilaterally. To date, nearly 1,500 patients have been evaluated, and over 800 have been started on long-term antiviral therapy. It is envisioned that this program will eventually be managed and funded by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ministry of Public Health. This program's success demonstrates a potential model for delivery of antiviral therapy for patients suffering from hepatitis B in other developing countries.

• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.53
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• pp.109-147
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• 2017

North Korean defectors had left North Korea often to escape from food shortages in the mid-1990s. Since the 2000s, the reasons of their flee from North Korea have more resulted from their exposure to external information, and a desire for democracy and freedom. However, North Korean defectors living in China are not recognized as refugees and thus subject to various human rights violations including forced repatriation. It needs to be thought that wether North Korean defectors who escape from North Korea are political refugees under international law. If they are not recognized as refugees in their new countries, it is imperative to consider a possible way to protect their human rights under international law. The problem of recognition of the refugee status of a person is a matter of involving the sovereignty of individual countries, however, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees should provide protection of their unique rights, as recognizes by the UNHCR, and their status should be treated as a refugees issue in a broad sense. In the future, it is a necessary to establish international solidarity among individual countries, the UN General Assembly, the decisions of the Human Rights Council and support of UNHCR, to anticipate the need for the refugee recognition and the protection of International Human Rights in preparation for possible mass defections and refugees from North Korea.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.83-90
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is a descriptive research study to confirm the difference in health empowerment according to the current status and general characteristics of North Korean women defectors residing in South Korea. The subjects of the study were 201 North Korean women defectors living in the local community, and data were collected from September 16 to September 21, 2020 using a structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation coefficients using the SPSS/WIN 23.0 program. As a result of the study, the domain with the lowest score in the health empowerment of North Korean women defectors was "I know a positive method to cope with stress related to my health care." in the stress management question. Statistically significant differences were found in North Korean repatriation experience(t=3.77, p<.001), education(F=4.56, p=.012), economic status(t=-2.95, p=.004), subjective health status(t=-4.75, p<.001) and subjective stress(t=-2.47, p=.015). Based on the results of this study, alternatives should be prepared to strengthen the health empowerment of North Korean women defectors according to their individual characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.137-152
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• 2000

North Korean fugitives is one of various nominations referring to the North Koreans who have secretly crossed the territorial border of their country. It is a new terminology that huts gained wider usage in our society as we entered the 1990s. North Koreans list various motives for escaping their county, such as food shortage and disillusionment of belief in the system. Most of the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees takes place in China. The purpose of this study examines the family knife of female fugitives from North Korea in order to provide pertinent alterntives which are needed to secure basic human right of the female fugitives and enable them to keep stability of their family lives and to adapt themselves into new socio-cultural circumstances in China. For this, the preliminary survey performed to examine the demographic characteristics on the female fugitives; to find out the incentives and channels of their escape out of North Korea; to investigate what types of family life and family relationship they manage in China; to grasp their problems and need of family life in adaptation into Chinese society. The specific questions for grasping the general characteristics of the female fugitives are composed of age, education level residential district in North Korea. In order to find out main causes and influential factors of their escape from North Korea, the following questions are included: what the most important incentives and motives are; the frequency of escape; and whether they discuss their escape with their family or not. The questions to find out their present actual life situations in China are about difficult things to adjust in China, family life, relationship with husband, and their conversational diction, the degree of their mastering the chinese language, the degree of their adaptation to chinese way of living, and so forth, which reveal to what extent they are adapted themselves to new cultural situation in China. This study collected the data through face-to-face personal interview from July to October, 1999 Yenben province along the China-North Korea border. Data from 202 female fugitives were used in final analysis. This study uses the SAS PC program for windows, Ver, 6.12 to analyze the data such as the distribution of frequency, percentage, mean and so on. The results from this analysis are follows; the most principal motive of North Korean women's escape to china is to eat to live because of famine. Concerning the year when the fugitives escape from North Korea, all of the interviewees haute escaped since 1990. After escape their continual contact with their family in North Korea, 81.7% of the respondent have not been in touch with their family. The main reasons for their not contacting with their family in North Korea are that it is not helpful although they contacts with their family. Female fugitives from North Korea have difficulties in life. They have rather stable relationship to their husband, but they have experienced difficulties in other aspects of family life. Their main difficulties are largely from their relationships to husbands'family members, and from the problems relate to their family in North Korea, and their children. Based on this study, further research has to present supportive policies that help North Korean female escapees live without being deprived and protect their human rights. And the development of practical program to help their efficient social adaptation has to be continued without stop together.

• The Journal of Korean-Japanese National Studies
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• no.34
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• pp.77-123
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• 2018

The liberated korea has the estimated population 16 million in 1945, and added 2.5 million just after an year. The korean repatriates returned by way of 2 main routes. The returnees, Wol-Nam-Min(former residents in north korea), and repatriates from Manchuria came into south korea over the 38th division line. The other repatriates from japanese islands and pacific areas came into Busan port and the vicinity. The repatriates who returned from the China and the Japanese islands made up about 80% of the total added population. However, the influx of overseas repatriates who explosively increased between 1945 and 1946, declined abruptly in April of 1946, and at last illegal re-emigration group to Manchuria and Japan Appeared, who had repatriated from those areas. This study deals with the "re-migration phenomenon of 1946" in korea, mainly focuses on 1) the motivation for those who decided to remigrate, their prospects of resettlement in Manchuria and post war japan after re-migration, 2) the structural problems of the Korean society in 1946-1947, and 3) the social recognition for the people who letf for Manchuria and Japan. This study proved the cause and background of re-migration phenomenon. The Manchuria case, the local authorities wanted farmers and peasants who could cultivate the abandoned land which had been originally pioneered and reclaimed by korean poor peasants, who repatriated to korean peninsula. On the other hand, the korean repatriates had a hard time in tenanting farmland, and so much difficulty in getting farming tools including fertilizer. That's why they left korea for Manchuria again. The Japanese case, the korean repatriates had a tough life owing to the restriction of properties left in japan, while the inflation and food shortage in korea got worse and worst. Accordingly, many koreans tried illegal entrance into post war japan. This study is a part of clarifying the universality and specificity of post war repatriation and migration issues developed in the south Korea. Through this study, we can find how difficult it is for newly liberated areas to accommodate repatriates and make them ordinary nationals in harmonic way with successful social integration. and we can observe the social aspect and administrative ability of newly liberated south korea in detail, Because the present korea has faced with so many problems connected with immigration workers and re-setting with korean communities abroad, we should introspect these historical experience of our own.