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2017.08.04
| Won | Pyongyang | Sinuiju | Hyesan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange Rate | 8,130 | 8,110 | 8,125 |
| Rice Price | 5,770 | 5,740 | 5,800 |
Among the 20,000 North Koreans currently in South Korean society, a small but significant number are making the sometimes difficult decision to return to North Korea, according to a prominent international North Korea expert. However, the South Korean government disputes the figure.
Citing recent figures from Sisa Journal, a South Korean weekly, Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University asserted in a piece published yesterday by Asia Times that around 200 North Koreans have returned to their homeland since defections began.
Many are espionage agents who have concluded their tasks in the South, Professor Lankov notes in his article, but many are not. North Korean defectors in South Korea still face vast difficulties in society, he adds, which makes it hard for them to achieve upward mobility and, in rare cases, apparently propels them back north.
“Most of the North Koreans went South with great and often inflated expectations,” he explains, “but soon they discovered the life they had to lead was far less glamorous than the life they saw in smuggled copies of South Korean TV dramas.”
Lankov points to the low average income of defectors, currently half the national average, as a symbol of this hardship; partly a result of their lack of skills, he notes, and partly down to engrained prejudices. This has even led, he claims, to many trying to “pass for ethnic Koreans from China” to avoid some of the stigma that gets attached to them.
When added to what Lankov calls the “loneliness and alienation” they feel and the supposed leniency they receive upon their return (with a certain scale “donation”, even good positions are achievable), it is regrettably understandable that a small but statistically significant number may prefer life in North Korea.
“South Korean society is not doing well when it comes to absorbing 20,000 North Koreans,” Lankov concludes, “most of whom are active and even adventurous people. However, sooner or later it will have to accommodate 20 million. How will it handle this task?”
However, the department within the Ministry of Unification, which controls defectors settlement in South Korean society, asserts that there is more to it than that. “As far as the Ministry has confirmed, only two defectors have so far returned to the North, one of them came back again,” an official with the Ministry explained to The Daily NK this evening. “That number (200) seems to be exaggerated. There are many cases where police officers who are supposed to take care of defectors and their lives lose a defector’s contact details or where defectors leave their places without notifying our officers.”
Among those who disappear from where they live, many simply move to China to live with Chinese families. Therefore, the official noted, there are “insufficient grounds” for the assertion that the 200 who disappeared have actually returned to North Korea.
Citing recent figures from Sisa Journal, a South Korean weekly, Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University asserted in a piece published yesterday by Asia Times that around 200 North Koreans have returned to their homeland since defections began.
Many are espionage agents who have concluded their tasks in the South, Professor Lankov notes in his article, but many are not. North Korean defectors in South Korea still face vast difficulties in society, he adds, which makes it hard for them to achieve upward mobility and, in rare cases, apparently propels them back north.
“Most of the North Koreans went South with great and often inflated expectations,” he explains, “but soon they discovered the life they had to lead was far less glamorous than the life they saw in smuggled copies of South Korean TV dramas.”
Lankov points to the low average income of defectors, currently half the national average, as a symbol of this hardship; partly a result of their lack of skills, he notes, and partly down to engrained prejudices. This has even led, he claims, to many trying to “pass for ethnic Koreans from China” to avoid some of the stigma that gets attached to them.
When added to what Lankov calls the “loneliness and alienation” they feel and the supposed leniency they receive upon their return (with a certain scale “donation”, even good positions are achievable), it is regrettably understandable that a small but statistically significant number may prefer life in North Korea.
“South Korean society is not doing well when it comes to absorbing 20,000 North Koreans,” Lankov concludes, “most of whom are active and even adventurous people. However, sooner or later it will have to accommodate 20 million. How will it handle this task?”
However, the department within the Ministry of Unification, which controls defectors settlement in South Korean society, asserts that there is more to it than that. “As far as the Ministry has confirmed, only two defectors have so far returned to the North, one of them came back again,” an official with the Ministry explained to The Daily NK this evening. “That number (200) seems to be exaggerated. There are many cases where police officers who are supposed to take care of defectors and their lives lose a defector’s contact details or where defectors leave their places without notifying our officers.”
Among those who disappear from where they live, many simply move to China to live with Chinese families. Therefore, the official noted, there are “insufficient grounds” for the assertion that the 200 who disappeared have actually returned to North Korea.
