Stranger Things

I clearly remember reading years ago, with no small amount of shock, that North Koreans in South Korea face discrimination. I hadn't given the subject much thought beforehand, but it's fair to say I had a rather naive notion that life in South Korea after escaping the North equated to the "and they lived happily ever after" ending of most fairy tales. I'm exaggerating slightly - I'm not that naive, but I certainly thought that North Koreans here would be embraced more and their lives would be easier than most of the following articles indicate.

While volunteering with Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) last week, I spoke with a defector who reminded me rather starkly of this issue when she simply said: "They don't like us." It is a sentiment echoed in the winning speech at the recent TNKR speech contest which I had the pleasure of attending:

QuoteWhen I was 19 years old, I attended a high school in Busan. I eventually made friends, and one guy, who's now a very close friend, told me he didn't sleep on the first night I arrived. When I asked him why, he responded: "I thought you might stab me during the night and flee back to North Korea."

I have been bookmarking North Korea-related articles for a while now and thought it time to post a list of articles that concern the lives of North Koreans living beyond the borders of their homeland. Life after escaping North Korea is not all Choco Pies and Korean dramas.

First up, a North Korean escapee finds himself in a cult. He later got out and began living with the freedoms he envisaged.

2004: Faces of Korea: The Foreign Experience in the Land of the Morning Calm (Richard Harris)

From Page 363:

QuoteWhen we decided to come to South Korea, it was a priest (Korean) we asked for help...
The reason he had helped bring me to the South in the first place was because he wanted me to follow in his steps and become a priest just like him. His goal had been to use me as a missionary in an effort to spread the gospel to other North Koreans at the time of reunification. The priest didn't know anything about the official government program for North Korans, and so I stayed in a country Church for one month, living essentially, in total ignorance of everything. ...At that time I was learning mostly with my priest. He was of the belief that Korean society had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the road and that Koreans were no longer in tune with the ways of the Bible. As a result, I spent all of my time with the priest and was unable to get out of the countryside.

The Priest told me that I had to pray alongside the Holy Spirit every morning before going to school because he was worried I would become too taken with capitalism and its destructive culture. So, I prayed alongside the Holy Spirit everyday at dawn and every evening upon returning home from school. I didn't even go to an arcade, an Internet café, or a singing room one single time during that period. I was eventually allowed a cell phone as a means of the priest checking up on me and knowing where I was at all times.

2009
Oct. 28: Aid Group Believes Half of All NK Defectors Suffer Trauma Disorders (Voice of America)

2010
June 1: NK Harassing Families of Defectors (The Chosun Ilbo)

Sept. 28: N.Korea & China Join Hands in Hunt for Defectors (The Chosun Ilbo)

2011
Jan. 26: Defector & Artist Works For Freedom, Unity (Korea JoongAng Daily)

May 16: NK Defectors Fail to Adapt to Life Away From Home (The Chosun Ilbo)

QuoteOne 45-year-old North Korean who defected to the South in 2003 even returned to the North in 2007. A factory manager in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, he failed to cope with life in the South and is said to have asked for a pardon after donating to the regime all the money he earned in the South.

July 14: Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South (Crisis Group)

2012

March 21: NK Woman Finds Jobs for Other Defectors in Seoul

July 12: Young NK Defectors Struggle in the South (The New York Times)

Oct. 2: Defector Manipulated into Returning, Claim Friends in Seoul (The Guardian)

Oct. 24: Female NK Defectors Suffer Depression, Sexual Abuse (Hankyoreh)

Oct. 26: NK Defectors Report Abuse After Arriving in SK (Hankyoreh)

2013

Unwelcome Migrants: The Plight of NK Refugees in China (US Korean Institute)

July 2: NK Defectors Struggle to Cope in Seoul (ABC News Australia)

July 26: NK Defectors Face Long Road to Integration in South (DW)

Dec. 15: Canada Closing Door on NK Refugees (The Toronto Star)

2014
March 5: The NK Deectors Who Want to Return Home (BBC)

March 18: NK Defectors Ambivalent About Life in the South (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 25: Horrors of NK: After Escaping Oppression, Defectors Face Discrimination & Fraudsters (The Asahi Shimbun)

April 1: NK Refugees Mostly Satisfied in SK (Wall St. Journal)

April 2: Getting Out of NK is Only Part of the Problem (Index on Censorship)

April 30: Seoul Asylum: The Brutal Existence of NK Defectors (Vice)

May 2: Life As A North Korean Defector


July 23: NK Defectors, Helpers Arrested in China (The Chosun Ilbo)

July 25: Arrested NK Defectors Include Senior Officers' Families (The Chosun Ilbo)

Aug. 8: Resettling in South Korea: Challenges for Young North Korean Refugees (The Asan Institute for Policy Studies)

Sept. 11: Canada Slammed Door Shut to NK Escapees (The Tyee)

Sept. 23: What's Keeping Door Shut to North Koreans Seeking Haven in Canada? (The Tyee)

Oct. 20: Inside the Fascinating Lives of NK Defectors (Mother Jones)

Oct. 27: NK Defector: I Still Cannot Forgive Myself (The Guardian)

Oct. 29: NK Defectors & Their Skeptics (The Diplomat)

Nov. 10: Learning English Opens Defectors' Eyes to the World (Korea JoongAng Daily)
Program Offers Free Job Training for NK Defectors (The Chosun Ilbo)

Dec. 22: NK Refugees Unwelcome by Half of S.Koreans (The Korea Times)

Dec. 24: New Pact Could Protect NK Defectors in China (The Chosun Ilbo)
Note: I'm not holding my breath - Look into that later.

2015

Jan. 6: NK Deserter Dies After Killing 4 in China (Chosun Ilbo)

Jan. 21: Voices of NK: Teenager Surprised at South's Competitiveness & Materialism (UPI)

Feb. 10: Defectors Work More & Make Less (Korea JoongAng Daily)
Nearly Half of NK Defectors Unemployed (The Chosun Ilbo)

Feb. 11: SK Seeks to Help NK Refugees Abroad (Yonhap News)

Feb. 11: SK Must Give Defectors Real Opportunities (The Chosun Ilbo)

Feb. 28: From Defector to Licensed Pharmacist (Korea JoongAng Daily)

March 3: Indifferent or Awkward: What Happens When North & South Koreans Meet? (The Guardian)
Fame for NK Defectors Brings Money & Suspicion (Reuters)

March 4: NK Defectors Call for Better Awareness on Their Plight (The Korea Times)

March 4: Defector Empowerment in SK: Implications for NK's Future (John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies)

March 6: An Interview with NK Defectors (Harvard Political Review)

March 7: NK Propaganda Video Targets Another Defector (NK News)

March 9: NK Defectors, S. Koreans View Each Other Negatively (NK News)
Toronto's N. Koreans Face Deportation (Now Toronto)

March 10: More Defectors Turn Away from SK (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 12: Stop Discrimination Against NK Defectors (The Chosun Ilbo)
Most Defectors Suffer from Depression (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 14: People Smugglers Tie NK Defectors into Crippling Debt (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 15: Female NK Defectors Prone to Cancer-Causing Virus (The Korea Herald)

March 17: More NK Defectors Driven to Crime (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 20: Canada's Safe Countries Bill Slams Doors on NK Defectors (David McKie)

March 20:

QuoteOnly One NK Defector Was Granted Asylum in Canada in 2014, A Stark Difference from the 222 Who Were Granted Refugee Status in 2012.

March 24: NK Defectors in SK Leave Detention Center Misinformed (UPI)

March 25: NK Defectors Ill Prepared to Face S.Korean Society (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 26: Resettlement Program for Defectors Needs Total Overhaul (The Chosun Ilbo)

March 30: Project Helps Defectors Adjust to a New Society (Korea JoongAng Daily)

April 6: NK Defectors Turn to Alternative Schools (The Chosun Ilbo)

May 6: Defectors Ignore NK Leader's Order to Return (Radio Free Asia)
Korea University to Help NK Defectors Adapt to South (Chosun Ilbo)

May 20: NIS Agent Gets 4 Years Prison for Framing Defector (The Korea Herald)

June 3: North Korean Migrants in China: Neither Trafficked nor Smuggled (Open Democracy)

June 5: NK Defectors Hired as Caddies After Assimilation Program (The Chosun Ilbo)

June 7: What South Korea Is Doing For These North Koreans Will Move You To Tears (Korea Boo)

June 12: Chinese Army Kills Suspected NK Defector (The Chosun Ilbo)

June 17: Why Are NK Defectors Being Turned Away in Europe? (The Diplomat)

June 25: When North Koreans Go South, Some Go Professional (38 North)

2015 Continued

July 1: Mass Wedding for NK Defectors Held in Seoul (The Chosun Ilbo)

July 1: Finding Hope in a Trash Can: How an NK Boy Kept Himself From Starving & Made it to America (Washington Post)

July 5: 80% of NK Defectors are Female (The Korea Herald)

July 6: NK Defector's Tale Won't be Told in SK (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Young NK Defectors Find Lifeline in Friendly School in South (John Power - Christian Science Monitor)

July 17:  A Rare North Korean in Los Angeles Just Wants to Blend in (Southern California Public Radio)

July 22: NK Human Trafficking Survivor Vows to Empower New Malden Refugees by Teaching English (SW Londoner)

July 28: After Leaving NK, Writers Are Penning Stories About Their Home (LA Times)

Aug. 8: Reverend Helps North Koreans Defect to South (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Aug. 15: A North Korean Defector's Regret (The New York Times) (Defector stories don't get crazier than this!)

Aug. 17: NK Defectors Arrested on Drug Use & Trafficking Charges (UPI)

Aug. 17: Police Nab NK Defectors for Alleged Drug Use (Yonhap News)

Aug. 19: Hope For NK Refugees In UK Through New Support Projects (Migrant Voice)

Aug. 25: NK Defector Speaks Out For Freedom (John Redmond for The Korea Times)

Sept. 3: Freedom Speech Contest For NK Defectors (Atlas Network)

Sept. 9: More NK Defectors Report Dissatisfaction With Life in South (UPI)

Sept. 11: Defectors in SK Dying of Suicide, Unknown Reasons (NK News)

Sept. 18: Male Defectors Struggle in SK Job Market (NK News)

Sept. 24: Claims Defector Wants to Return to NK Met With Mixed Reactions (NK News)

Sept. 26: Teach NK Refugees, Seoul (On The Ground NGO)

Sept. 27: Almost 700 NK Defectors' Whereabouts Unknown (Yonhap News)

Sept. 27: Whereabouts of NK Defectors Unknown (The Korea Times)

Oct. 20: Report: Defectors' Economic Prospects on the Rise (Daily NK News)

Oct. 20: Korea Hana Foundation Expands Defector Mentoring Program (Daily NK News)

Oct. 24: SK Plastic Surgeons Help NK Defectors Erase Their Scars (The New York Times)

Nov. 2: NK Defector Trained in Propaganda Art Now Uses it to Mock Rulers (LA Times)

Nov. 4: How North Korea's Defectors Have Became The New Disruptors (Opportunity Lives)

Nov. 9: First NK Defectors Enter SK Unification Ministry (Daily NK)

Nov. 14: Number of NK Defectors on Steady Decline (The Korea Times)

Dec. 2: Kim Jong-un's Aunt to Sue Defectors for Defamation (The Chosun Ilbo)

Dec. 3: China Turning Hostile Toward NK Defectors (The Korea Times)

Dec. 15: The Stereotype of the Damaged North Korean Is Demeaning (Rachel Stine for Huffington Post)

Dec. 18: NK Pay Over $8,000 to Escape (The Korea Times)

Jan. 1: For Refugees, What Happens After Escape? (Yahoo News)

Feb. 5: 30,000 North Korean Children Living in Limbo in China (The Guardian)

Feb. 19: North Korea Ordered Assassination of Defector (The Korea Times)

March 8: South Korea's Coffee Shop for Defectors (BBC with Alex Jensen!)

March 8: Most North Korean Refugees Are Women - Here's Why (Liberty in North Korea)

March 27: North Korean Defector Criticises China in Rare Beijing Talk (Yahoo News)

March 31: Q&A: Hyeonseo Lee on North Korean Defectors in China (The New York Times)

April 4: They Flee North Korea, Only to be Adrift in the South (AP)

April 12: Number of Defectors up 17.5%on-year in Q1 (The Korea Times)

April 20: Lee So-Yeon Speaks Out For NK Female Defectors (The Korea Times)

April 26: How Our Society Forces a Fixed Identity on North Korean Defectors (Hankyoreh)

May 13: Life as a North Korean Refugee (Hyeonseo Lee for The New York Times)

June 9: NK Defector Completes S. Korean Military Service (The Korea Times)

June 21: New programs help defectors from North Korea adjust, shed stigma (UPI)

Aug. 1: Defectors Suffer From Low Social Status in South (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Aug. 18: For elite North Korean Defector, a Job & Bodyguards Await in South (Reuters)

Aug. 18: Trafficked, Enslaved & 'Without Hope' in China (News Deeply)

Aug. 23: NK Said to be Dispatching Hit Teams to Kill Defectors (The Asahi Shimbun)

Aug. 24: N. Korea dispatches defector kidnapping agents to China (DongA Ilbo)

Oct. 18: She Fled NK, Turned to Online Sex Work & Escaped Again (Washington Post)

Nov. 5: Defector Becomes First North Korean to Join ROTC (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Nov. 9: Statistics Highlight Abuse of NK Women in China (Chosun Ilbo)

Nov. 14: Number of Defectors Exceeds 30,000 (Chosun Ilbo)

Nov. 28: Gov't to Increase Benefits for NK Defectors (Chosun Ilbo)

Dec. 7: Defector Finds Freedom in Daughter (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Jan. 5: Chatty & Joking, Elite NK Defector Becomes Media Star in South (Reuters)

Jan. 18: The Website Helping Defectors Adjust to Life in the South (NK News)

March 16: 45.4% of NK Defectors Experience Discrimination (The Korea Times)

April 4: NK Restaurant Workers Admitted to SK University Following Defection (The Korea Times)

April 17: NK Refugees Adjusting in UK (The Korea Times)

July 8: Defector Struggles With Life Outside Hermit Kingdom (ABC)

July 24: Family Of Five North Korean Defectors Arrested In China Takes Cyanide To Avoid Being Sent Home (The Daily Caller)

Aug. 31: Defectors Studying in Sydney Recall First Time Using the Internet & Tasting Cookies (ABC)

Sept. 2: Defectors Reveal What life is Like on The Other Side (New Zealand Herald)

Sept. 17: Gov't Official Accused of Selling Information About Defectors (The Korea Times)

Oct. 19: Defector & Ex-Con Caught 78 Days After Fleeing Mental Hospital (The Korea Herald)

Oct. 22: Defector Caught After Escaping From Mental Hospital (The Korea Times)

Oct. 24: Two Defectors Vanish in China (The Korea Times)

Nov. 4: Young Woman Who Fled NK to Australia had to Relearn Everything (Sydney Morning Herald)

Nov. 25: Defectors in Toronto Facing Deportation to SK (The Star)

Dec. 30: Defectors Must Overcome Big Challenge Once Free: Learn English (USA Today)

Jan. 2: Only One NK Defector Settled in US Last Year - Lowest Since 2006 (The Korea Times)

Feb. 18: Defector Arrested for Sending Rice to Pyongyang (Yonhap News)

Feb. 22: Two Decades After Being Sold as Bride, NK Woman Finds Salvation in Seoul (NBC News)

March 2: A North Korean's Unexpected Challenges in the South: Learning the Language & Ditching the Accent (CBC News)

QuoteHis Northern inflection struck his co-Koreans as foreign, a telltale sign that also led to problems in the South. "I could understand maybe 70 per cent" of the Korean conversations on the streets of Seoul, Eom, 37, said recently in an interview at an English school in the South Korean capital. "But on the different side, the South Koreans couldn't understand me! They couldn't understand our language."

Aug. 2: North Korean Women have Been Escaping to the South... But What Happens When Hope Leads to Disappointment? (Ann Babe for California Sunday Magazine)

Aug. 5: I Have Arrived in South Korea. Now What? (2) (The Korea Times)

Nov. 1: Lack of Women & Girls in China has Helped Create a Thriving Market For Trafficked Girls & Young Women from Neighbouring Countries (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Sept.: A Defector's Journey (State Magazine)

QuoteAccording to a 2017 survey conducted by the Korea Hana Foundation, which provides educational and other support to North Korean defectors, the majority of North Korean defectors are of middle- and high-school age. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) extols the virtues of its educational system, including boasting a literacy rate of 100 percent, but a 2017 "Foreign Policy News" report indicates that 16 percent of North Korean class time is dedicated to studying political thought, which includes the propaganda-heavy history of Chairman Kim Jong Un and his family. While not as blatant as political thought classes, other subjects, such as math and English, also incorporate praise for the DPRK leadership: sample sentences from English textbooks proclaim Kim Il Sung's generosity and Pyongyang's beauty. Moreover, students who escape North Korea must put their education on hold, sometimes for many years. To reach the South, most defectors flee through China, where they are considered illegal immigrants and are subject to repatriation. When students who have defected try to pick up where they left off in South Korea, many find that they are far behind their classmates.

English—present in many aspects of South Korean life, from mandatory language classes beginning in elementary school to increasingly common loanwords—is a major barrier to defectors, including students, looking to build a life in the South. In public schools, defector students, who may become the targets of bullying, already face significant challenges adjusting to their new lives and school environment. Data from the South Korean government highlight the effects of an interrupted education on North Korean defector students. The high school dropout rate for North Korean defector students in 2018 was 2.5 percent, significantly higher than the 2018 dropout rate of 0.9 percent for South Korean students overall. Prominent commentators and South Korean NGOs that work with defectors attribute this outcome to the difficulties many defectors experience in trying to keep up with South Korea's fast-paced curriculum while simultaneously dealing with the social challenges accompanying defection.

Sept. 2: ROK Government to Establish Comprehensive Measures to Guarantee Social Stability of North Korean Defectors (Ministry of Unification)

Sept. 21: She Fled NK for a Better Life - She Died With Her Young Son in Seoul (CNN)

QuoteWhen defectors reach South Korea, they are given 8 million won ($6,704) cash. Two-person households also get unconditional welfare support of 870,000 won ($729) per month for six months, less than the country's average median income for a two-person household, which is 2.9 million won ($2,430).

Still, many defectors – like Han – struggle to find employment. A survey last year by South Korea's Unification Ministry of more than 25,000 defectors found their rate of unemployment is 2.9% higher than South Koreans. Almost 60% of those surveyed said that childcare obstructed their ability to gain employment.

Dec. 2: NK Defectors Caught in Vietnam Face Risk of Deportation (The Korea Herald)


Jan. 29: North Korean Would-Be Defectors Arrested in Emergency Operation Near China Border (Radio Free Asia)

Jan. 30: Seven Out of Fifteen North Korean Would-Be Defectors Arrested in Emergency Operation (The Union Journal)

Feb. 17: Former North Korean Diplomat's Smartphone Hacked Presumably by North Korean Group (The Korea Times)


Jan. 27: Number of North Korean Defectors Drops to Lowest Level in Two Decades (CSIS)


July 20: Beijing 'Actively Enables' Trafficking of North Korean women, Girls (The Korea Times)

Aug. 6: Why Are Over 70% of North Korean Defectors Female? (The Korea Times)

The fact that I've neglected this thread for the past six years is a good a sign as any that I took a long and I think needed break from all of this - North Korea/South Korean cults etc. I also stopped volunteering with Teach North Korean Refugees, now called Freedom Speakers International, when Covid hit, and regretfully, I've yet to return to that although I keep in touch with some of my former students, one of whom has released a book which I will soon read. I was with Sharon the day this interview was conducted to offer some moral support. We're going to meet up soon, and I am so looking forward to catching up. Back to the topic with a video I just stumbled upon. And I hope one day soon to dig up and post articles published between Feb. 2020, the most recent article currently posted before this post, and today - March 31, 2026.

May 30: North Korean Defectors Struggle to Adapt to New Life in South Korea (France 24 English)

Jan. 22: North Korean Defections to South Korea Remain Low Years After COVID-19 Pandemic (Stars & Stripes)

QuoteThirteen fewer North Koreans defected across the southern border in 2025 than the year before for an annual tally of 223, according to recent data from South Korea's Ministry of Unification. Of those, 198 were women and 25 were men, a ministry spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes.

Still, the number of defectors making their way to South Korea the past three years is about one-fifth of those who defected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to numbers the spokeswoman provided. The pandemic lasted from March 2020 to May 2023, according to the World Health Organization. Before the pandemic, more than 1,000 people defected from North Korea annually, according to the ministry's statistics. Since then, an average of 200 have made their way south each year, the spokeswoman said. ...

March 28: I Escaped North Korea wWth my Mum. Now I'm Terrified She Might Be Sent Back (BBC)

QuoteIn response to a question from the BBC, the foreign ministry in Beijing said China was a country "ruled by law".

"Illegal immigrants are not refugees. China has always maintained a responsible attitude, adhering to domestic and international law, and handling these matters appropriately in the spirit of humanitarianism," the statement added.